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CP* vi 





// A A 



THE APOSTLE OF THE NORTH." 




THE 



"Apostle of the North." 



THE LIFE AND LABOURS 

OF 

THE REV. DR. M'DONALD. 



THE REV. J. KENNEDY, 

Dingwall. 




LONDON: 
T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW \ 
EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK. 

1866. 



E~chanq-e 
Western Ont. Univ. Library 

DEC 2 9 1941 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 



Dr. Macdonald's father— Glimpses of him during his life— His death— His 

character as described by his son 9 

CHAPTER II. 

His birth— Baptism— School days— College days— Conversion— His favourite 

minister, Mr. Robertson 22 

CHAPTER III. 

License— Ossianic tour— Mission— Ordination— Translation to Edinburgh — His 

work there 42 

CHAPTER IV. 

Translation to Urquhart— His predecessor— State of the parish— State of the 

north — An evangelist required — Mr. Macdonald prepared for his work 56 

CHAPTER V. 

His wife's death, and his first communion at Urquhart— Action Sermon — 
Results — Journal— Visit to Perthshire — Awakening in Glenlyon and 
Breadalbane— The " dumb dogs" attempt to bite 78 

CHAPTER VI. 

Abounding in labours — Spinningdale — Strathbogie — At the bar of the 

Assembly 95 

V 

CHAPTER VII. 

St. Kilda -Visited by Mr. Macdonald in 1822 -Extracts from his journal 108 



Viii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Pagt 

Declines a call from Edinburgh— rreaches in London— Revisits St. Kilda 131 

CHAPTER IX. 

Visits Ireland-Revisits St. Kilda 160 

CHAPTER X. 

Evangelistic work— Anecdotes— Journals 18S 

CHAPTER XI. 

Domestic life— Rules for the employment of time— Correspondence with his 

son 234 

CHAPTER XII. 

His associates among the ministers of the north— Dr. Bayne— Mr. Lachlan 
Mackenzie — Dr. Mackintosh— Mr. Forbes— Mr. Macadam— Mr. Eraser—- 
Dr. Stewart— Mr. Kennedy— Associations 270 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Trial— Disruption times— Inverness Assembly 2S9 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Last days— Death— Character 314 ' 




THE 



APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 

♦ 

CHAPTER L 

dr. macdoxald's father— glimpses of him during his life— 
his death — his character as described by his son. 

N the gloaming of an evening in the year 
] 753, a young man, low-sized and strong- 
framed, whose face — round, swarthy, and 
expressive — was lighted up by keen, dark 
eyes, might have been seen approaching the door of 
one of the cottages in a hamlet, in the parish of Kil- 
donan. That cottage is his lowly home. He 13 
unwashed and uncombed ; his dress is homespun and 
torn ; and the lines which streaming tears have made 
still streak his face ; but his countenance is bright- 
ened by the expression of a joy, which till lately 
his heart had never known. He is returning from 
the lonely hill-side, where he has spent the most 
of the day in prayer. Only a few days have passed 




10 



A WORD IN SEASON. 



since he, for the first time, " tasted that the Lord 
is gracious." That young man was Dr. Macdonald's 
father, then in his eighteenth year. 

A few years later, James Macdonald, now a married 
man, might have been seen among the worshippers 
in the church at Creich. Mr. Rose is in the pulpit. 
There is no gleam of gladness now on James' face, 
for the joy of his espousals has departed from his 
heart. He sits in darkness, and his downcast look 
tells how feeble is his hope that light shall arise on 
him again. But how fixed his attention has become ! 
The preacher has described a case which he recognises 
as his own; and, having done so, added, " Thou art 
seeking Christ, but thou shalt not find him here. 
On thy return home, retire at once to thy wonted 
place of prayer, and He whom thou seekest shall 
there meet with thy soul. Satan will try to intercept 
thee ; but beware of yielding to his temptation." 
The service over, James returned home, pondering 
by the way the advice which had been given. On 
coming within sight of his house, he observed two 
of his neighbours standing together before the door. 
Approaching nearer, he discovered that they had 
quarrelled, and heard in their angry utterances, threats 
of personal violence. Remembering the counsel 
given to him in the church at Creich, he hurried 
past the disputants to his praying nook in the 
barn, and ere he left it, he could say, " My beloved 
is mine, and I am his." 



THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 



11 



In the year 1770, James might have been seen 
seated beside a table, in a large barn, in the parish 
of Reay, surrounded by a crowd. He is engaged in 
examining the people, for he has been appointed 
catechist of the parish. All eyes are fixed upon 
him, for he never failed to arrest and sustain the 
attention of his hearers. How lucid is his brief 
exposition of the answer given from the Shorter 
Catechism ! How apparent is the drift of his 
questions in cross-examination ! How patiently 
he deals with that ignorant old man ! How ten- 
derly he treats that timid youth ! How he rises 
in the series of questions put to that forward, self- 
confident fellow, till he has silenced him at last, 
and made him feel that he is wise only in his own 
conceit ! 

An emigrant ship had been caught by a storm off 
the Caithness coast. She was hastening towards the 
frowning rocks that fence the northern shore. 
Almost all on board were on their knees uttering loud 
cries for mercy, and some were driven by the storm to 
pray, whose oath had been the loudest in the calm. Sit- 
ting quietly among them was James Macdonald, un- 
ruffled, hopeful, and resigned. One of the passengers 
observing him, said, " You hardened, godless man, 
why don't you pray?" "I pity those," was James 
answer, " who never prayed till to-night." The 
vessel was dashed on the wild lee shore, but all on 
board escaped. They were bound for America; and 



12 



JAMES MACDONALD S SECOND MARRIAGE. 



thither James Macdonald had resolved to emigrate 
with his wife and family; but this was his first and 
last attempt to leave his native land. 

On an evening, in the year 1775, James Mac- 
donald, now a widower, is seated alone in his room, 
when a pious neighbour enters. His friend, anxious 
about James' comfort, has been praying to the Lord 
to provide for him a second wife. He has never 
broached the subject to the catechist, and he himself 
has never thought of it. But his friend is pressed 
and encouraged to speak about it now; and this is 
the object of his present visit. After a good deal of 
shying and fencing, the proposal is at last fairly 
made. u I never thought of such a thing," James said, 
" but I will consider it: call back again." After a 
few days his friend returned. " What now," he 
asked, " do you think of my proposal ? " " I am 
quite ready to marry/' he said, " if I got a wife from 
the Lord ; but I know not where to seek for one." 
His friend was prepared to help him in his search, 
and proposed to accompany him to a certain family. 
Away they went together, and entered the house 
where the young woman lived whom his friend had 
set apart for the catechist. The mother is requested 
to call the daughter into the room. When she 
entered, James asked his friend, "Is this she?" 
" Yes, that is your second wife," was the reply. 
" She would require to be better than she looks," 
James said, after looking towards her. This was 



BETWEEN TWO FIRES. 



13 



said aloud ; and regarding the catechises remark as 
the reverse of complimentary, the damsel in a huff 
left the room. But the marriage was arranged 
before they went away, and took place soon after. 
This second wife was Dr. Macdonald's mother, and 
he was her second child. 

In James day, in Caithness, a true follower of 
Christ had, ecclesiastically, a difficult part to act. 
His safe course was a narrow one, between two 
opposing parties, both of whom would try to draw 
him to their side. If he remained in the Establish- 
ment, he was in danger of countenancing men, who 
craved the office of the ministry, merely that thereby 
they might earn a stipend, and who employed the 
stipend in degrading the office by which they had 
acquired it. If he joined the Separatists, who had 
ceased to hear the ministers of the Established 
Church, he would forsake his "mothers house," 
where he had been born again, and fed with " the 
sincere milk of the word." In either case he would 
encounter a double opposition. The two classes of 
ministers would oppose him if he seceded, and if he 
remained in the church, and was faithful, both the 
Separatists and the Moderates would be against him. 
He chose to remain in his " mother's house ; " and 
he so conducted himself there, as to secure the con- 
fidence and affection of the godly, and the respect of 
the ungodly, ministers* around him ; and at the same 
time to retain the respect, as a tribute to his un- 



14 



ADVICE AS TO PRAYER. 



doubted godliness, of those who were loudest in 
denouncing the abuses of the church. 

On his ' way home, after joining in the com- 
munion services in a neighbouring parish, he called 
for John Grant, the acknowledged leader of the. 
Separatists, for whom he cherished the most affec- 
tionate respect. John, knowing where he had been, 
received him very gruffly. James resolved to have 
" the first word of flytirig," asked him, why he had 
not been at the communion. " Because," he replied, 
"the Lord told me not to go, and if you would take 
my advice, you would not go yourself.'' " Well, 
John," James said, " when you are asked, at the last 
day, why you were not there, you can look up to the 
Judge and say, ' Thou thyself didst forbid my going;' 
but if I remained at home, I could only reply, when 
asked the same question, 1 John Grant told me not 
to go,' and this you will allow would be but a poor 
apology." And he added, " When my coat gets some 
dirty spots upon it, I count it too precious to cast it, 
on that account, aside ; I rather stick to it, and strive 
to make it clean. You must allow me to count my 
church more precious than my coat ; and though I 
see many stains upon it, I will not cast it off." 

His son often quoted an advice once given by 
James to a pious man who had wearied him by a 
tedious prayer. "If you have liberty in public 
prayer/ 5 he said, " be short, for there will be few to 
follow you ; and if you are in bondage be short, for 



JAMES MACDONALD'S LAST DAYS. 



15 



if not, you will weary yourself aud others/' " Then 
you would have me to be always short." " Just so/' 
James said; and his own practice invariably accorded 
with his counsel. 

He lived to see his son a minister, and even his 
son's strength began to wane before his fathers death, 
which took place in 1 830. His age was then ninety- 
five, and seventy-seven of these years he was in 
Christ. During this protracted Christian course, his 
garments were kept unspotted, the dew of heaven 
kept fresh the savour of his godliness, the vigour of 
his intellect remained unbroken, and the Lord con- 
tinued to employ and bless him in His service. 

During the last eight years of his life he was quite 
blind. His second wife had died before this dark- 
ness fell upon him, but the blind widower retained 
his cheerfulness, and the joy that reached his heart 
from heaven kept its wonted gleam upon his face. 
An elderly woman attended on him, with whom he 
could maintain the closest Christian intercourse. She 
was much given to prayer, counted it an honour to 
do what she could for the aged saint, and when he 
was removed from her, she pined and prayed for the 
summons to follow him, until the hour of her de- 
parture came. 

A few years before his death, Sir John Sinclair 
wished him to come to Ulbster Castle, promising to 
give him quiet apartments for himself, where he might 
spend his last days in comfort. James, although 



16 



FATHER AND SOX. 



grateful for the baronet's kindness, declined to leave 
his own lowly cottage, saying, " Where I sinned, there 
must I die/' When seized by his last illness, he 
said, " If it be the Lord's will, I would like to be on 
my death-bed just as long as my Saviour was in the 
grave." And so it was ; on the third day after he 
was taken ill, he died. 

His connection with Dr. Macdonald would justify 
a fuller account of the worthy catechist of Keaj 7 ; 
and could it be given, it is due to his own worth 
and eminence. It would be the more interesting, 
but at the same time the more unnecessary to do so, 
because the father's character was reproduced in his 
son, though seen in him in a different position, and 
modified by change of circumstances. It is interest- 
ing to trace a resemblance between the faces of a 
father and his son ; if their forms are like as well, 
all the more pleasing is the result of the comparison ; 
if, besides, mind resembles mind in sire and son ; if 
the disposition of the one finds its counterpart in 
that of the other ; if, moreover, both parent and 
child are alike the sons of God; and if, withal, the 
Lord hath dealt with both according to the same 
mode of operation in dispensing to them his grace, 
a resemblance almost unique is then discovered. It 
was so in the case of this father and this son ; so 
that much would be anticipated, that must be written 
in describing the son, if a sketch of the father's 
character were attempted. Instead of doing so, the 

(103) 



THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS WAY TO JORDAN. 



17 



following translation, in unrhymed and unfitting 
English, of bis son's description of him is given. 
Most unconsciously, but most faithfully, did be 
portray some features of bis own character, while 
giving us this portrait of his father, in his Gaelic 
poem entitled, " The Christian on his Way to Jordan.'' 
u I remember, for in the young morning of niy 
day I knew, men famous in the life and fight of 
faith, whose hearts would accord the crown to the 
great Captain of salvation, and give to him the un- 
divided glory. Among those blessed ones who ran 
the race unblemished, there was one of whom I am 
now to make special mention. It were well my 
part, and it is in my heart to do so; for he was my 
father according to the flesh, and my stay in the 
days of my youth. To him the Lord was early very 
merciful in regenerating him, and giving him the 
knowledge of Christ. Before the age of twenty 
years, he poured out his Spirit on him; putting on 
him the seal and the beauty of holiness never to be 
removed. 

His natural endowments were remarkable. His 
intellect was lively and vigorous ; but strong and 
active though were his mental powers, it was grace 
that turned them to account. This sharpened and 
shaped them, and raised them heavenward; and, as 
the water does to the well-adjusted machinery of the 
mill, set them a working. Many boast of their 
talents; but of what avail are they if the warn} 

(103) 2 



18 



THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS WAY TO JORDAN. 



breath of life be not in thern ; they are but as the 
bones which lay scattered and dry on the valley — 
the largest no better than the meanest of them all. 
But let the genial breath come on them from the 
four winds of heaven, and lo ! the scattered bones come 
together, and rise up a living army. So are eminent 
gifts under the praiseworthy working of the Lord. 

" The Lord unstintingly dealt out to him the oil of 
grace, and on his soul it continued to descend from 
day to day — the portion always doubled when he 
was on his knees. Often each day were those knees 
bent, and his soul refreshed before the throne of 
grace, for the Spirit of prayer kept him near the 
throne. Well do I remember how he w r as wont to 
kneel on hill and vale. The anointing which came 
on him from above, kept his spirit tender and con- 
trite, and seasoned his speech. This, too, gave him 
spiritual alertness in religious duties, and kept him 
steadfast in the cause of Christ. 

" In his office as catechist, he for many years was 
faithful, assiduous, and untiring in his w^ork. Never 
slow to begin, and never tedious when he did begin, 
none could sleep when he was speaking. How lively 
and clear his expositions were ! Never posing with 
hard questions, he gave suitable and profitable 
instruction. Capable of conceiving clearly the idea 
before his mind, he never failed to give it clear and 
fitting expression. Well chosen and apt were his 
words, and always fraught with wisdom. 



THE CHRISTIAN ON HIS WAY TO JORDAN. 19 

" He was a cheerful Christian. Whatever his own 
state of feeling might be, none saw a frown upon his 
face. His desire ever was to commend Christ to 
others, and to exhibit the beauty of godliness. Often 
has he told to some that it was his prayer to heaven 
to be enabled to keep a cheerful face over a hard 
heart. Many could testify that as he asked, so it 
was given him; and verily this was the means of 
increasing his usefulness in the vineyard of the Lord. 
An affectation of seriousness — the grim face, and the 
querulous, heartless groan — he never could endure. 
He could distinguish between the fragrance of a 
broken heart and its counterfeit, and those who 
savoured of it were always dear to him. Clear was 
his discernment of a work of grace, and of the 
difference between death and life; but he was always 
charitable in his judgments, leaving it to Him to 
whom alone it appertains to make a perfect separa- 
tion between the precious and the vile. He never 
loved to winnow with too strong a wind, lest wheat 
might be scattered with the chaff. He preferred to 
leave some chaff among the wheat than to send the 
seed away with the husk. 

" He learned to live by faith, and not to walk by 
sight, or to lean upon experience. Christ as revealed 
in the truth, and not his own attainments, was the 
foundation of his faith. To be lively in his feelings 
he always desired, but he counted it but poor fare to 
live upon them. But when faith w r as receiving, the 



20 



THE CHRISTIAN APPROACHING JORDAN. 



flesh was always pinched, and experience feasting 
His was indeed the faith which is of the operation 
of the Spirit, which cleaves to Christ on the warrant 
of the word, which goes out to him with the empty 
vessel through the press, and never returns without 
good news. This was the faith through which the 
saints bare trials and endured to the end, that would 
receive no voice or vision instead of the written word, 
but found rest in the truth and came nigh to God. 
This faith in him prevailed against guilt, corruption, 
and temptation, contending till it triumphed in many 
a fierce conflict, and withstanding every storm that 
broke upon his soul. That he was no stranger to 
unbelief he himself would acknowledge, yet he did 
not cherish it nor listen to its lying tales. He con- 
fronted the lying prophet with the truth of the 
promise, before which he always played the coward 
and w r as dumb. 

" With steadfastness, peace, and earnestness he 
walked on in the life of faith, watchful, and giving 
no offence by word or act. In secret and in public 
communing with God, he was much loved by, and 
he greatly loved His people. 

" He did not forget that, as were his fathers, so 
was he a pilgrim on the earth; that his rest was 
above; that his day was shortening and would soon 
come to an end; and that his great business was to 
prepare for his d eternai home. Many days were 
given him to make up his life — for his age was ninety- 



THE CHRISTIAN AT JORDAN. 



21 



five years — but his strength was not abated to the 
end ; and as death came near, his sou], ripening fast 
for glory, was longing much to reach it. Much had the 
Lord done for him since first he met him, preserving 
his mental vigour from decay, and from reproach his 
name. His light shone brightly throughout all his 
course, and no dimness paled it as he breathed his 
last." 



CHAPTER II. 



HIS BIRTH— BAPTISM— SCHOOL DAYS— COLLEGE DAYS— COXYERSIOX- 
HIS FAVOURITE MINISTER, MR. ROBERTSON. 




R MACDONALD was bom on the 12th 
of November 1779. On that day his 
father was from home, being engaged in 
his work as catechist in a distant part of 
the parish, and the young folks took advantage of 
his absence to join in the out-door amusements of 
Halloweven. The mother was thus deserted by all the 
members of the household, and the only one present 
with her when her second son was born was a pious 
widow, one of her neighbours. Such was the inter- 
est this woman felt in the child so early dependent 
on her kindness, that as soon as he was weaned she 
insisted on taking him to her own house. His 
parents gratified her wish, and he remained for five 
years under her care. Each night, before putting 
him to bed, she knelt beside him, and in an audible 
voice prayed for the child. These prayers left such 
an impression on his memory that even in his last 
years he could recollect some of her petitions. 

The parish of Keaj r being then vacant, James 



BAPTIZED ON THE MOOR. 



23 



Macdonald was obliged to apply to a neighbouring 
minister for the baptism of his child. On a cold 
December day he and his wife w T ent with the infant 
to that minister's manse. On reaching it they found 
that the parson was from home; he had started in 
the morning on a shooting excursion, and was not 
expected to return before sunset. Instead of waiting 
for the reverend sportsman, they started across the 
moor on their way home again. They had not gone 
far when the minister, in his shooting attire, met them, 
and at once decided to make short work of it by 
baptizing the infant on the spot. They were stand- 
ing beside a frozen pool, and after muttering a few 
words of prayer, the minister broke the ice with the 
butt end of his gun, and fetching water from the 
opening, sprinkled it on the face of the infant as he 
repeated the solemn words of consecration. Such a 
baptism, if an early earnest of the treatment await- 
ing the Apostle of the North at the hands of the 
Moderates, seems now a presage of his future work 
as the great field preacher of his day. 

The ministers conduct in this affair may give an 
idea of his character. He was no inapt specimen of 
a class who found the office of the ministry tolerable 
only when they acquired facility in ignoring its 
responsibilities, and in casting its restraints aside. 
On one occasion, being anxious to ascertain in what 
estimation he was held, and meeting a man to whom 
he was unknown, and through whom he expected 



24 



FIGHTING ON THE KNEES. 



the vox populi to speak, he resolved to elicit his 
opinion. The result did not encourage him to re- 
peat the experiment. Not wishing to single out 
himself, he first asked him his opinion of two other 
ministers. " What do you think of Mr. K.?" he in- 
quired. "Mr. R is an honourable minister.'' "And 
what do you think of Mr. M.?" " He is tolerable," 
was the reply. And then coming to himself, he 
asked, " And what is your opinion of Mr. C. ?" The 
answer to this was, " As for him, he is just abomi- 
nable." 

John Macdonald derived his name from his two 
grandfathers. His paternal grandfather was an emi- 
nent Christian, much given to prayer, the author of 
several Gaelic hymns, and known as " the man who 
would fight only on his knees." A misunderstanding- 
arose between him and Mr. Gunn or M'Homish, his 
landlord, who not only threatened to eject him from 
his croft, but actually laid violent hands on his per- 
son. John Macdonald quietly bore his landlord's 
blows, and said good humouredly, " I will not fight 
with you standing, but come and I will try you on 
my knees." Hearing this, Gunn went away in a 
great rage, conceiving himself to be highly insulted. 
Meeting another of his tenants, he complained to him 
of the insult John had offered him by proposing to 
fight him on his knees. " He will do it too," the 
tenant said, " and I fear you will have the worst of 
it." "How so?" asks M'Homish. "John Mac- 



EAELY BOYHOOD. 



25 



donald," he replied, " has much to say with heaven, 
and he usually gets whatever he asks from the 
Almighty. It was in this way he proposed to 
encounter you on his knees, and if he does so, you 
will be sure to lose the day." On hearing this the 
landlord took fright, never rested till he had asked 
forgiveness from John Macdonald, and was very kind 
to him ever after. 

His maternal grandfather, John Mackay, bore a 
high Christian character, and his two grandmothers 
also feared the Lord. 

Before entering school he was three years in his 
father's house after being restored by the pious widow 
who took charge of him during his first five years. 
During that time we must think of him as a smart 
active little fellow, with a merry leer scarce ever 
away from his quick black eyes, and a face which a 
cheerful smile seldom failed to brighten, dressed in 
the kilt, barefooted and bareheaded, the active if not 
careful herd of his father's cows. His ingenuity in 
inventing plays, his musical propensity, and his even 
temper, won for him the place of leader among the 
boys who met on the herding ground. But even in 
these early days he had his fits of seriousness. It is 
seldom that children, having such instruction as he 
received from the lips and life of his father, are able 
entirely to evade anxiety as to their state as sinners. 
John Macdonald, amidst the levity of his early boy- 
hood, was seized at times with a sense of his guilt 



20 



SCHOOL-DAYS. 



and danger. He would then betake himself to his 
knees; and on one occasion, using his influence over 
his companions, he persuaded them to join him in 
prayer in the place where they were accustomed to 
meet to play. He has told that, in those days, he 
often spent an hour in prayer, and on rising from his 
knees the young Pharisee was disposed to say, " What 
a good boy I am now. The Lord will surely be 
pleased with me to-day/' 

In his ninth year he entered the parish school of 
Reay, then taught by Mr. William Munro, of whom 
he afterwards wrote — " He was my first and last 
teacher, and under Providence my best friend in 
prosecuting my education. I entered his school," he 
adds, " June 1788, and commenced Latin May 1791. 
He taught me without a fee." His father wished to 
give him only an elementary education, content if his 
son could read, write, and reckon; but the school- 
master, knowing that the catechist's son would do 
him credit, and acting on the parish minister's advice, 
began in 1791 to teach him Latin. In the same 
class with him were two sons of the Laird of Big- 
house. They proved a drag rather than a stimulus 
to J ohn Macdonald, but the teacher could not venture 
to promote the son of the catechist and leave the sons 
of the laird behind. Their mother ascertaining this, 
engaged the dux of the Latin class to go to the man- 
sion-house every evening to assist her sons in prepar- 
ing their lessons. The privilege of being brought in 



PRAYING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 



27 



contact with more refined society and habits counter- 
balanced the disadvantage of his having to drag 
two dunces after him through the difficulties of the 
Latin grammar. 

After entering on his teens he became known as 
the cleverest scholar in the parish school, and he was 
in consequence often employed by the neighbouring 
farmers in making up their annual accounts. An 
anecdote connected with this work he has often told. 
Being asked to make up the accounts of a farmer 
in a distant part of the parish, he was under the 
necessity of remaining for several days in his em- 
ployer's house. The farmer had always kept up a 
form of family worship, though well known to be 
fonder of pence than of prayers, but he had never 
ventured, when on his knees, beyond repeating the 
words of the Lord's Prayer, on any former occasion. 
Thinking it necessary to get up something extra 
when the catechist's son was present, as he knew 
him to be a sharp youth who would be sure to mark 
the difference between his prayer and wdiat he was 
accustomed to hear at home, he resolved to para- 
phrase the form which had stood him in such good 
stead before, that it might be decently long at any 
rate. Beginning with the invocation, he added to it 
the words, " and also on the earth," and an eke to each 
of the first three petitions ; but having repeated the 
fourth, " give us this day our daily bread," there was 
a long pause. He evidently seemed to feel that this 



28 



MRS. INNES OF SANDS1DE. 



was but a very scanty allowance to ask, so, with an 
earnestness in which he let out the deepest desire of 
his heart, he added, " but if Thou wilt give us more, 
we are quite ready to receive it." 

Such during his school days was his eagerness to 
learn that, with the assistance of a neighbour who 
was " the cunning craftsman" of the district, he built 
a room at the end of his father's cottage, to which 
he removed his bed and his books, and where he 
used to spend a set portion of each day. 

Mrs. Innes of Sandside, hearing of the catechist's 
clever son, took a great interest in him, employed 
him in keeping her accounts, and procured for him 
a bursary, which helped him through his course at 
college. She was very religious in her own way, 
and rigidly tested by her standard all with whom 
she came in contact. Her son was a major in the 
army, and his irreligion continued to be for many 
years a source of great anxiety to his mother. In 
one of her letters to her protege, she whites — Oh, 
I don't know what to think of poor dear William ; 
he has no sense of religion whatever." But William 
became a true Christian; and in a letter thereafter 
his mother writes — " I am distressed about poor 
William. I fear lie will turn out a Methodist or 
rather a fanatic." There was no pleasing the 
mother; her son distressed her before because he 
had no religion at all, and now he distresses her no 
less by having too much. 



JOHN MACDONALD ENLISTS. 



29 



A shock of the same kind was afterwards given 
her by her protege. She lived to hear him preach, 
and w T as disposed to think him extravagant; but 
though she regarded his doctrine as rather wild, she 
did not make this outrage on her religious sobriety 
a ground of quarrel with her early favourite. On 
one occasion she induced an English party, then on 
a visit to Sandside, to go to hear him preach. He 
was at the time suffering from a sprained ankle. 
The sermon was one of those fervid discourses 
which he then usually preached. Mrs. Innes' friends 
were exclaiming loudly against the alarming doc- 
trine and the vehement manner of the preacher after 
the service was over. Mrs. Innes' apology for her 
protege was — " You must make some allowance for 
my John; his sprained ankle spoiled his usual good 
humour to-day/' 

In his eighteenth year Mrs. Innes sent him with a 
letter to the house of a neighbouring proprietor. 
There happened to be a recruiting party there at 
that time, and in those days most unscrupulous 
measures were resorted to in order to enlistment. 
There was music such as j T oung Macdonald had 
never heard before, and dancing, in which he w T as 
not slow to join in the evening, and before the reels 
were over the catechist's son had the bounty money 
in his pocket. The recruiting Serjeant, when part- 
ing with him at night, said to him — " You are now 
enlisted to serve your king and country, and in the 



'60 



THE SCEPTIC S END. 



morning you must come along with me to a justice 
of the peace to be attested/' This was rather more 
than the youth had reckoned on when he became 
Mrs. Innes' messenger, and was a price he did not 
expect to have to pay for his evening's fun. Next 
morning at breakfast the Laird spoke of the smart 
recruit whom the serjeant had enlisted on the even- 
ing before. The minister of Olrig was present, and 
inquired if the recruit was the young man who came 
with the letter from Sandside. On ascertaining that 
it was he, he said — " He must be released; he is the 
son of James Macdonald, the Reay catechist, and his 
parents intend to send him to college/' He then 
importuned the officer in charge of the recruiting 
party to release him, which he agreed to do, and 
John Macdonald was allowed to return to Sandside. 
Thus narrowly, as it seems to us, did the Apostle of 
the North escape from being a soldier. 

The following anecdote connected with his resi- 
dence at Sandside he has often told. As Mrs. Innes 
was starting for church on a Sabbath forenoon, Mr. 
Dunlop, a neighbouring farmer, called. u Are you 
not going to church, Mr. Dunlop," Mrs. Innes asked, 
after they met and saluted. " No, ma'am," was his 
reply, " I have not been in church for seven j<ears, 
and I enjoy good health, and feel as happy as those 
who attend regularly there." " That might do very 
well for this world," Mrs. Innes said, " but what are 
you to do, sir, for the next?" " Oh, as to that," was 



LOVE OF MUSIC. 



31 



Lis profane reply, " in five minutes I can make my 
peace with God." Many years after this conversa- 
tion Mr. Dunlop, who continued the habit of which 
he then boasted, was reading a newspaper on Sab- 
bath, apparently in his usual health, when in a 
moment he dropped down dead on the floor. When 
Dr. Macdonald was informed of the circumstances of 
his death, recollecting the conversation at Sandside, 
and referring to it, he said — " Poor man, he did not 
get the five minutes on which he reckoned for mak- 
ing his peace with God." v 

He early manifested an intense love for music, 
and even in his boyhood acquired considerable skill 
in subduing into melody for Celtic ears the wild 
sounds of the bagpipe. This was his favourite 
instrument; and on leaving home for college in 1797 
it w T as carefully packed in his trunk, and doubtless 
furnished many a pleasant interlude amidst the busy 
studies of the session. In leaving home the next 
year the pipe was forgotten, but recollecting, after 
reaching Thurso, that he had left his favourite behind, 
he returned to his father's house to fetch it. Before 
the following session higher matters began to occupy 
his attention, and the pipe was that year left pur- 
posely behind. His father, in order to try him, wrote 
to inquire what would be done with the pipe. "Just 
what you think right," was his answer, well knowing 
what treatment his idol was likely to receive at his 
father's hands. The old man no sooner received this 



32 



FIRST MEETING WITH HECTOR HOLM. 



license from his son than he went to fetch the pipe 
from its place, and laying it on the block, he plied 
with right good-will the axe on its chanters. 

In one of his journeys to college he reached the 
north side of Invergordon ferry during a gale ol 
wind. The ferrymen would not venture on sea till 
the wind subsided, and he walked on the shore wait- 
ing for a quieter hour. There was then no inn 
beside the ferry, and even if there were, he could ill 
afford to pay its charges. Hector Holm's house was 
near. He was the "Gaius" of "the Men" of Ross-shire ; 
and right welcome was any stranger to food and 
lodging in his hospitable home. Mrs. Holm, ob- 
serving a youthful stranger sauntering along the 
shore, went up to him and invited him to her house. 
Her husband was from home, and was not expected 
to return till a late hour; so after giving him the 
best her presses held, she asked the stranger to con- 
duct family worship, which he at once agreed to do. 
Just as he had begun the prayer Hector Holm entered 
the house, and hearing a strange voice he stood at 
the door to listen. The prayer opened his heart to 
the youth who offered it, and he took him in, and 
when they met he saluted him very warmly. The 
feeling then produced deepened in Hectors heart as 
the student visited him year by year thereafter on 
his college journeys. In later years it grew into an 
affection of peculiar strength. The student to whom 
he showed kindness, when as a stranger he first took 



AT COLLEGE. 



him in, he well knew afterwards as the great evan- 
gelist, and he gave to him, with a deeper love than 
before, his profound respect. Nor did the minister 
ever forget the kindness shown to him as a student. 
Often, after he was minister of Urquhart, has he 
spent a night under the roof which, then gave him 
shelter. On these occasions the back court of Mr. 
Holm's house was converted into a chapel, filled with 
a crowd gathered from the country all around; and 
to the preacher and to many of his hearers the ad- 
dresses delivered there were often most refreshing. 

At college he was of " the first three " in all his 
classes ; in the mathematical class he was facile 
princeps. But once out of college, the " one thing 
needful " asserted its place in his thoughts and study, 
and the work of a busy evangelist, when he became 
a minister, left him little leisure for literary and 
scientific pursuits. 

The professor of mathematics, under whom he 
studied, was accustomed, towards the close of the 
session, to give some posing problems to the students 
which he expected very few of them to solve. The 
result was that on the last d&ys very few students 
were present in the class-room. At last John Mac- 
donald was left with but one companion. He was 
busy with one of the posers during the whole of one 
of the last evenings of the session. He had failed 
in working it out, and could not discover his mistake. 
He was at last obliged to lay it aside, and to go to 

(103) 3 



34 



THE SOMNAMBULIST. 



bed. To his great surprise, next morning he found, 
written by his own hand, the correct solution lying 
on the table. His companion told him that he had 
risen during- the night, written what he found on 
the paper, and thereafter returned to bed. He 
brought the solution to the class, and the professor 
found it quite correct. 

He was not, nor did he require to be, so scrupul- 
ous as one of his predecessors at TJrquhart, who was 
an habitual somnambulist. Engaged to preach a 
public sermon in Inverness, he was unable to fix his 
mind on a suitable text, and was obliged to go to 
bed, on the night before the day of preaching, with- 
out having either text or sermon. Not long after he 
fell asleep, he rose, lighted his candle, sat down at 
his desk, and was busily writing for some time. He 
then laid the paper aside, extinguished the light, and 
went to bed again. His wife watched him all the 
time. In the morning he awoke early, and seemed 
in great perplexity. His wife inquiring what dis- 
tressed him, he told her that he was going to Inver- 
ness without either text or sermon. " I can supply 
you with both/' she said. "That can be of no use 
to me if I did not myself select the subject and com- 
pose the- sermon," was his reply. "But what I am 
to give you," she rejoined, " is 3'our own and no 
other's." She then went to the desk, and taking 
out the paper which he had written, handed it to 
him, telling him what she had observed him do at 



CONVERSION. 



33 



niQ'hfc. " The text is suitable," he said, after reading 
what he had written, " and the skeleton is perhaps 
better than I could have written in my waking 
hours ; but I was unconscious when I wrote it, and 
I will not offer to the Lord that which cost me 
nothing/' Laying the paper aside, he started for 
Inverness. By the way another subject was sug- 
gested to his mind, on which he preached that day 
with unusual power and success. 

It was in the interval between two of his college 
sessions, that John Macdonald began in right earnest 
to ask, "What must I do to be saved?" There is 
reason to believe that the reading of President 
Edward's works was the means of beginning the 
work of conviction which issued in his conversion to 
God. This in his case was a fiery process. He has 
been heard to declare that, such was his experience 
then of " the terrors of the Lord/' he was at the time 
persuaded that the agony of his soul was an antici- 
pation of hell. Shut up to Christ as his only re- 
source by the felt desperateness of his case as a 
sinner, and by the authority of the command to be- 
lieve in the Son, on the one hand ; and on the other, 
shut out from him in darkness under the power of 
unbelief and in the impotence of spiritual death, well 
knew he then the agony of a soul lying without 
hope at the disposal of Him who will have mercy on 
whom he will have mercy, and who hardeneth whom 
he will. In this state of mind, as he himself once 



30 



EARLY FRUIT. 



told the writer, he was walking one day by the sea- 
side. Under the pressure of despair, and at the 
suggestion of the tempter, he advanced within the 
sweep of the great billows that were breaking wildly 
on the shore. Ere the advancing wave had reached 
him, a ray of gospel light pierced the darkness in 
which his soul was shrouded. Rushing at once from 
the danger which he had rashly provoked, and climb- 
ing up into a quiet cave in the rock hard by, he was 
there and .then enabled to commit his soul to Christ. 
He went to the shore that day in the grasp of the 
destroyer ; he returned from it in the arms of the 
Saviour. 

The place in which the Lord then met him became 
his favourite resort thereafter. A few days only had 
passed, when, as he was pouring out his heart before 
God in the cave, a young man, whose soul was just 
entering on the felt darkness of despair, was going 
towards the sea. Overhearing a sound from the 
cave, he stood to listen. The words which he heard 
were the means of arresting him, of dispelling the 
shadow of death from his heart, and of assuring him 
that there was hope in the gospel even for him. 
Thomas Forbes was that young man's name. He 
was afterwards well known in Glasgow as a consistent 
fervent follower of the Lamb. 

It is impossible to trace with any distinctness the 
steps of his progress in the knowledge of Christ. 
He himself refrained from referring to his persona] 



MR. ROBERTSON. 



37 



experience, regarding it as selfish and indiscreet to do 
so. He kept no record then of God's dealings with 
his soul. This much however is certain, that the 
works of Edwards, his father's wise and prayerful 
instruction, and the clear and unctuous preaching of 
Mr. Robertson then missionary at Achreny, after- 
wards of Rothesay and Kingussie, were the means 
employed and blessed by the Lord in guiding him 
into the truth as it is in Jesus. 

For Mr. Robertson he continued to cherish the 
warmest affection, to which he gives fervent expres- 
sion in an elegy written by him after Mr. Robertson's 
death,- — the best unquestionably of all his Gaelic 
poems. 

Recalling his first impressions of him he thus de- 
scribes his feeling :■ — 

''Since first I heard thy powerful savoury sooth- 
ing doctrine, in my early days, to me thou Avert the 
first among many honoured brethren. In my affec- 
tion thou didst then find a place, whence, during all 
thy life, thou wert not removed ; and since through 
death thou 'hast gone home, that place is empty. I 
did believe that my soul was knit to thee as an am- 
bassador of Christ ; but not till after the separation 
did I know how strong and tender was the tie that 
bound us. And if there was aught that could make 
heaven to me more desirable besides eternal com- 
munion with my God, it is that thou art there before 



38 MR. ROBERTSON AS A PREACHER. 

% 

He thus describes him as a preacher : — 
" No sooner had thy mouth been opened to preach 
the gospel of Christ, than the true people of God 
found in thee a father and not a child. Thus said 
they; and they said so truly; for the work wrought 
in thee by Christ ere thou didst enter the vineyard 
gave thee at the outset an advance of many years in 
thy work. Then hadst thou such acquaintance with 
the life of grace in the hearts of God's people, that 
when thou didst speak regarding it thou hadst not 
to grope for matter. Thou earnest forth as a cham- 
pion in the name and strength of thy Redeemer. A 
champion active and skilled thou wert indeed, for it 
was the Lord himself who made thee so. He it was 
who gave thee skill to preach both law and gospel, 
reserving its own due place to each. So orderly, 
clear, unctuous, and fluent was thy handling of them 
both, that utterly void of understanding must he 
have been who received no benefit from thy preach- 
ing." 

He contrasts him with a class of preachers of 
whom he writes : — 

" They substitute cold knowledge for the light 
which cometh from above ; and venture to teach 
others by proclaiming to them tidings which they 
themselves have never known. True, there may be 
much knowledge and learning in their heads, and a 
fluent tongue as well. They may be loud-voiced, 
and their sermons may be most exactly in their 



mr. Robertson's death. 



39 



memories, and as polished as if they had smoothed 
them with a plane. But how can they proclaim the 
gospel in its glory and its power, with a dark un- 
derstanding, a hard heart, and an insensate conscience. 
For though the blind may speak of colours, he never 
saw their beauty ; and though a bird may utter 
words, it knows nothing of their meaning." 

Referring to his death he says : — 

" Some have felt the tidings of thy death pierce 
them as a sharp arrow that hath reached the marrow 
of their bones, and there stuck fast. Theirs is a 
sorrow that shall not soon dry up, unlike the grief 
of others which is but for a little and then passes 
quite away. As the dew of night on the mountain 
on a calm morning quickly passes away as if it never 
was, so soon as the sun has cast his rays upon it ; 
thus some are for a short season sad ; but joy and 
singing reach them, and, lo ! their sorrow is away, 
and it is found no more. But the showering rain 
abides not on the surface, but goes down into the 
soil ; and the deeper it sinks, it is the more abiding. 
Thus, the sorrow of some is but increasing when that 

of others has quite passed away Near to the 

spot where thou hast often stood to preach have they 
laid thy dust ; and as before thy life, so now thy 
death, is each Sabbath giving instruction to thy 
people. Some, doubtless, will look with a heavy 
heart often on that spot of earth, fragrant to them 
since thou wast laid there. Methinks I hear one of 



40 



MR. ROBERTSON IN THE GRAVE. 



them thus speaking over thy grave, ' Alas, all com- 
plexion and beauty have now departed from that 
noble manly countenance. Nor hand nor foot can 
this day move. They are now at rest under the 
spell of the grave. Tongue shall not speak; nor shall 
ear listen to the wail of the mourner. The eye, 
once so bright, lively, and loving, that often beamed 
so kindly on the children of grace, and through 
which the tender heart could be so easily discovered, 
is now under the seal of death, and shall not be 
opened. The tongue once so skilled to preach to us 
the gospel, is now under the strong lock of the grave, 
and shall speak to us no more. Oh, ye inhabitants 
of the grave, what stillness has lain upon you since 
your form and beauty have departed ! Oh, when 
again shall ye move ! The worm shall sleep in the 
ground; in a quiet corner rests the insect during the 
storms of winter ; but with spring they shall awake 
again. But when shall a spring arrive that shall 
arouse the still silent dwellers in the grave ? When 
shall they awaken out of their sleep ? A long, long 
sleep is theirs ! Leaves shall spring out again from 
the branch, bare and uncomely though it be to-day ; 
and in his celestial journey, the sun shall return again 
after he has gone out of sight. But when shall 
these again appear in beauty who now lie withered 
in the grave ; when shall those sun-rays reach them 
that shall give them resurrection from that bed. 
Yes, warmth shall come after the cold, and day 



AT THE RESURRECTION, 



41 



after the longest night ; but when shall day dawn 
on the grave, and its long night be past?' But, 
soul, restrain thy mourning; day shall yet dawn on 
the grave, and before it the grave's long night shall 
flee away, with all that made it dark and frowning. 
The dust of him for whom thou hast often w r ept shall 
then arise with comeliness, beauty, and strength 
greater than though in the grave it had never lain. 
O grave, employ thy power to-day, for the King of 
hosts permits thee. Yea, extend thy sway, and 
swallow up the nations. But boast not of thy 
might ; for though it is enduring it is not eternal. 
Already the Almighty One hath won an everlasting 
victory over thee. And in him shall his dead arise — 
a glorious band, his own purchased possession. Their 
tongues shall then no more be silent, for all that 
made them dumb is gone." 




CHAPTER III. 




LICENSE— OSSIANIC TOUR — MISSION — ORDINATION— TRANSLATION TO 
EDINBURGH — HIS WORK THERE. 

E was licensed to preach the gospel, July 
2nd, 1805, by the Presbytery of Caith- 
ness. He was then known only as the 
son of James Macdonald. His father's 
fame as a Christian and as a catechisfc heightened 
the expectations which waited for his preaching; and 
the love and respect entertained for the father made 
many anxious for the success of the son. His first 
sermon was not accounted worthy of his father s son. 
Some expected in his preaching a reproduction of his 
father's maturity of thought and feeling, and were 
therefore greatly disappointed. One of his first texts 
— " I beseech thee, shew me thy glory " — startled 
others. A sermon on such a subject they regarded 
as too ambitious an effort for a young man, and not 
a few shook their heads and hinted, that a young 
head suited young shoulders better than an old one. 
His first discourses, though carefully prepared, were 
very unpretending ; and though distinctly were coldly 
delivered. Some of the more discerning of his 



OSSIANIC TOUR. 



43 



hearers found a germ of promise in his earliest ser- 
mons, but except to a few. there was in his appear- 
ances as a probationer no indication of his future 
pulpit power. There may have been an excess of 
care as to the composition of his sermons, a forget- 
fulness of his hearers' wants and an overrating of 
their knowledge, a desire to write well rather than 
to preach effectively, and a nervousness which made 
him diffident, and set him to mandate with a painful 
exactness that acted as starch on his manner in de- 
livering his discourses. 

Two months after being licensed, he started on an 
Ossianic tour throughout the North-western High- 
lands, at the urgent request of Sir John Sinclair. 
The object of his journey was to ascertain to what 
extent traditions of the Fingalians existed in the 
Highlands, and whether Ossian's poems were still 
remembered. The results of his tour are thus 
summed up by himself : — 

" 1. In the whole course of my travels in the 
Highlands, I did not meet with an individual, so far 
as I recollect, who did not hear of the race of Fingal ; 
and to whom the names of Fion, Ossian, and Oscar 
were not familiar, even though they could not repeat 
the poems and tales of these heroes. 

" 2. Persons, in the different counties through 
which I travelled, who never had any intercourse 
with each other, repeated the same tales and poems 
with very little variation. 



44 v ossian's poems. 

" 3. That there existed such a race as the Fin- 
galians, that their time was in remote antiquity, and 
that the poems of Ossian are genuine, are as firmly 
believed in the Highlands as the truth of any tradi- 
tion whatever. Learned and unlearned, young and 
old agree in this. 

" N.B. It is the general belief that the Fingalians 
were natives of Scotland, and resided chiefly there ; 
but frequently visited Ireland on warlike expedi- 
tions." 

^Slaving asked an old Highlander in Lochalsh, who 
had fought at Sheriffmuir, and who was in his hun- 
dred and twentieth year, whether he believed in the 
genuineness of Ossian's poems, "Do I believe the 
Bible?" was his indignant reply. 

The question, then raised, and since so often 
discussed, whether the Ossianic poems are the pro- 
ductions of an ancient poet called Ossian, or of a 
modern poet called Macpherson, may now be regarded 
as settled. The discovery, in ancient manuscripts, 
of a large portion of the Ossianic poetry, and the 
fact that Ossian's poems were better- known in the 
Highlands before, than since Macpherson's birth, ought 
to set the question for ever at rest. That Macpherson 
was in possession of ancient manuscripts of Ossian's 
poems cannot be reasonably doubted, though he 
never chose to exhibit them ; but, besides translat- 
ing them, he may have added to and altered them. 
He would have done better had he done less. 



A WORD IN SEASON. 



4.5 



During his tour in search of Ossianic remains the 
young preacher did not forget that he was dedicated 
to higher service. He preached in every parish 
which he visited, and thus, within three months 
after his license, began to acquire some training for 
the great work in which he became famous as " The 
Apostle of the North/' Having preached in the 
parish of Glenelg, the minister, a genuine Highland 
moderate, said to him after the service was over, 
"That was a very good sermon, I suppose, but it 
was quite unsuitable here; for you spoke all day to 
sinners, and I know only one in all my parish." 

Crossing the hills between Assynt and Lochbroom, 
his guide across the trackless moor was a little girl 
just entering on her teens. He had not spoken to 
her till they were parting at the journey s end. He 
then slowly and solemnly repeated the words, " Re- 
member now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, 
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw 
nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in 
them." Twenty years thereafter he was preaching 
at Contin on one of the days of the communion 
season. After sermon a woman salutes him, who, 
after he had entered into conversation with her, told 
him that she was the young girl who acted as his 
guide across the hills of Assynt; and that the 
words which he had repeated to her on that 
occasion had made an abiding impression on her 
heart. Inquiring about her, he ascertained, that 



40 



MARCUS GUNN. 



she was regarded by all who knew her as a truly 
Christian woman. 

He returned to Caithness in November, and offi- 
ciated as a missionary in the districts of Achreny and 
Halladale for six months. He was ordained as a 
missionary minister at Berriedale, in September 1806; 
and he laboured there till his translation to Edin- 
burgh in January of the following year. 

His first marriage took place in January 1806. 
The prudence of this step is not apparent. He was 
not then ordained ; his income was very small ; his 
home very lowly ; and his temporal prospects not 
very bright. 

While at Berriedale he continued to improve as a 
preacher, but did not even then excite very high ex- 
pectations. He was greatly respected by the more 
judicious of his hearers, and was regarded as a ser- 
vant of Christ by all ; but none anticipated his future 
eminence. 

His most intimate friend at that time was Marcus 
Gunn. He resided near to one of the churches in 
which Mr. Macdonald usually preached. He was a 
judicious Christian, and the young minister was often- 
helped and cheered by his wise and friendly counsels. 
He has often told a remarkable instance of this. He 
was once engaged, during all the previous days of 
the week, elaborating a discourse on a very difficult 
text, when on Saturday morning he was compelled 
to lay all his preparation aside, and think of a diffe- 



TRANSLATION TO EDINBURGH. 47 

rent subject from that which he had so carefully 
studied. He wrote a few hurried notes, started for 
the more distant station, and reached at night the 
house of Marcus Gunn. "I am very glad to see 
you," he said, as he met Mr. Macdonald at the door. 
With more than his wonted warmth of manner he 
repeated the salutation as they entered the house 
together, and again after they were seated. ."There 
is surely some reason/' the minister said, " why you 
are so glad to see me to-night." "There is," his 
host replied ; " I was very anxious about you. I 
was thinking of you last night. I thought that you 
were attempting to rise up to the clouds for manna 
to give to your people, and that you tried in vain ; 
that you then at last began to look for it on the 
ground, where the Lord had laid it, and that there 
you found it ; and if I am not greatly mistaken 
your text to-morrow should be John vi. 37," tne very 
passage to which Mr. Macdonalcl's mind was directed 
in the morning. 

Having received from the Society for Propagating 
Christian Knowledge, a presentation to the Gaelic 
Church in Edinburgh, he deemed it his duty to 
accept of that charge. He removed from Berriedale 
in December 1806, and was inducted as minister of 
the Gaelic chapel in the metropolis in January 1807. 
His father visited him at Berriedale on the eve of 
his departure, and helped him in the work of flitt- 
ing. The day on which he left his humble home at 



43 



THE GAELIC CONGREGATION. 



Berriedale was very stormy ; and as, with his wife 
and his father beside him, he was taking his last look 
of the cottage, its roof was lifted by the strength of 
the gale and strewn in fragments on the ground. 
His father turned to him and said, " John, I think it 
was high time to leave Berriedale." 

In the new sphere, on which he now entered, the 
experience which he had acquired could not be of 
much avail. True, it was a Gaelic charge; his hearers 
in Edinburgh were Highlanders ; but they were in a 
city, removed from all the restraining influences to 
which they had been wont to yield, and in contact 
with temptations which found them unwary and 
unskilled. They had come from all districts of the 
Highlands, and were of all clans and of all coteries, 
and they carried with them in their local prejudices 
and jealousies many elements of division. A few of 
them, successful in business, became purse-proud, and 
ambitious of a position which their want of education 
unfitted them to occupy. . Others, finding it easier, 
amidst greater laxity of opinion and of conduct, to 
make a creditable profession of religion, thrust them- 
selves forward into positions in the Church which 
they would not have ventured to lay claim to before. 
To manage such a congregation wisely, to refrain 
from giving unnecessary offence, and yet to deal 
faithfully with all, required no ordinary skill. There 
were then, however, among the Highlanders in Edin- 
burgh, not a few pious men, whose character all 



CELT VERSUS SAXON. 



49 



respected, and who united all their . influence in 
strengthening the hands of their minister. With 
their help, and by his own amiable disposition, easy 
address, and growing pulpit power, he was enabled 
to consolidate the congregation into a compact body, 
with the lines of section blotted out, and all ani- 
mated by the warmest feeling of attachment to 
their minister, till the proposal of introducing an 
English instead of one of the Gaelic services began 
to be mooted. 

The introduction of an English sermon each Sab- 
bath becomes always a necessity at a certain stage 
in the life of a Gaelic congregation in a large city. 
The young born in the city grow up in ignorance of 
Gaelic, and some, who once could speak it, by not 
using lose it. Some of the older members of the 
congregation affect to be genteel when they become 
rich, and must try, by rolling their tongues in bar- 
barous Scotch, to rub the Gaelic off them. Others, 
anxious to have their families along with them in 
the house of God, must go to other congregations 
if an English service is not provided for their chil- 
dren in the Gaelic church. The strength of the 
congregation is weakened if these forsake it. The 
minister, too, likes to preach in English as well as in 
Gaelic. Outside his own congregation are some who 
like the Highland preaching when it is given them 
in a lowland tongue, and the presence and influence 
of these is an accession. So there must be English ; 

(103) 4 



50 



LABOUR NOT IN VAIX. 



it cannot be kept out. And the pure Celts are sure 
to resist its introduction. Many of them think that 
the preaching is not worth a hearing if it is not in 
Gaelic. Some think that a slight is cast on the only 
language which they speak, and on the land which 
was their birthplace, and they stand up against the 
Saxon tongue as their sires once rose against the 
Saxon rule. A few who derived spiritual profit by 
the Gaelic sermons are unwilling to lose one of the 
diets by which they were accustomed to be fed. 
There is always, therefore, a risk of serious division 
whenever the English service is first introduced. Mr. 
Macdonald had painful experience of this during his 
ministry in Edinburgh. But let the dust of that 
strife lie unstirred. 

While in Edinburgh his work gradually increased, 
till at last his labours became excessive. Besides 
delivering two Gaelic discourses during the day he 
preached an English sermon every Sabbath evening. 
Besides prayer meetings and district catechizings he 
delivered regularly a weekly lecture. As his fame 
was rising, demands for his services multiplied. He 
preached occasionally in Greenock, Port-Glasgow, 
Dundee, and Perth, and frequently in Glasgow and 
Stirling, where Highland regiments of militia were 
stationed. There were blessed fruits of his preaching 
to the Highland soldiers. Not a few of them were 
converted unto God through his sermons at that time, 
and when their regiments were disbanded they re- 



RENCONTRE WITH A PRIEST. 



51 



turned to their homes in the north, to labour in the 
service, and to live to the praise, of the Lord. 

During the earlier portion of his ministry in Edin- 
burgh he statedly visited his people. This was work 
in which he could easily excel. His cheerfulness, 
conciseness, and punctuality, enabled him to overtake 
an amount of visitation impossible but to a few, and 
to make it always pleasant and instructive. Having 
visited, on one occasion, a member of his congrega- 
tion whose husband was a Papist, and at the time 
lying apparently on his death-bed, he was asked to 
speak to the sick man. He found him very exhausted, 
but it was owing to want of food rather than to want 
of health, the priest having administered extreme 
unction and forbidden him to taste food thereafter. 
The minister's persuasion, backed by the sick man's 
hunger, proved stronger than the priest's authority. 
Food was given him, and he was in the act of taking 
it when the priest came in. Indignant, and even 
furious, he moved forward to snatch the food from 
the sick man's hand, but the broad shoulders of the 
Highland parson were thrust in between him and the 
bed; and the priest, after discharging a mouthful of 
curses at the head of the heretic, deemed discretion 
the better part of valour, when he scanned the mus- 
cles of his opponent, and sullenly withdrew. The 
man recovered, and was a regular hearer ever after 
in the Gaelic Church. 

In order to have leisure for study it was his habit 



52 



REVIVING. 



to retire, as often as he could, to a room in the house 
of Mr. Ogle, the publisher, kindly granted to him as 
a " prophet's chamber," where he was allowed to study 
without disturbance during the time set apart for 
that purpose. In his own house interruptions would 
constantly occur, especially after he became famous 
as a preacher. Many Highlanders and some Low- 
landers are apt to think that a minister requires but 
little time for stud} 7 ; and he at least was thought to 
be able to preach without any preparation at all. 
A lady once said to him, when he proposed to retire 
to study, "You, sir, can shake a sermon out of your 
sleeve any time you like." Yes, ma'am," he replied, 
"if I had it in my sleeve; but before I can shake it 
out I must first put it in." 

The intercourse which he enjoyed with such minis- 
ters as Dr. Campbell, Dr. Colquhoun, Dr. Davidson, and 
others, and with the literati whom he met at Sir 
John Sinclair's, was most beneficial to him. He had 
no such advantages before, and, eager to acquire 
knowledge, he was resolved to make the most of them. 
He carefully read such works as he heard these great 
men criticize and commend, and thus attained to be 
abreast of the leading minds in general information; 
and he acquired a facility and accuracy of expression 
in English which greatly contributed to his future 
usefulness. 

But he passed through a still more important 
change during his residence in Edinburgh. There 



MR. MACDONALD IN EDINBURGH. 



53 



is no record of his experience at that time, but of his 
having made a fresh start in the way of life there 
was abundant evidence. There have been instances 
of persons becoming " other men " who were never 
new creatures in Christ ; but there have been also 
instances of renewed men becoming other men under 
a fresh baptism of the Spirit. This was the change 
which Mr. Macdonald underwent in Edinburgh. It 
was soon apparent in his preaching. Always clear 
and sound in his statements of objective truth, his 
preaching now became instinct with life. It was now 
searching and fervent, as well as sound and lucid. 
Knowing the terror of the Lord, as he knew it not 
before, he warned sinners in Zion with such faithful- 
ness and power as excited the wonder and the awe 
of his hearers. His statements of gospel truth were 
now the warm utterances of one who deeply felt its 
power. The Lord's people could now testify that he 
spoke from his own heart to theirs. His manner in 
.the pulpit underwent a corresponding change. His 
action became most vehement; but it never seemed 
extravagant to any hearer who could sympathize 
w T ith the views and feelings of the. preacher. His 
melodious voice, though often very loud, was always 
under his control, and was pleasant in all its tones. 
Chanting occasionally as he spoke, he added greatly 
to the effect of his preaching on Celtic sensibility. 
His sermons, always fraught with thought, bright 
with illustration, and teeming with feeling, were fitly 



54 



FIRST SERMON IN TAIN. 



delivered with the most unaffected and the intenscst 
earnestness of manner. 

So marked was the change which then passed over 
his preaching that many were led to judge that he 
had never preached the gospel till then. This is en- 
tirely a mistake. He preached the gospel in Berrie- 
dale as surely as in Edinburgh, though with far less 
unction, discrimination, and power. 

Soon after this change he visited his father in 
Caithness, and preached in several places during his 
journey, exciting the astonishment of all who heard 
him. Being in Tain, on his return from Caithness, 
he was asked by Dr. Mackintosh to preach, and he 
at once agreed to do so, and occupied his pulpit dur- 
ing all the services of the Sabbath. Being an utter 
stranger to the people he received but a cold welcome 
from them, when he was seen mounting the pulpit 
stairs instead of their own revered minister. There 
was present in church one who, on that day, had 
walked sixteen miles, as he had often done before, to 
hear the great doctor. He thus described his feelings 
on that occasion : — " I was greatly disappointed on 
seeing Dr. Mackintosh walking towards the ' manse 
seat,' and instead of him a smart-looking young man 
walking, as I thought, with too rapid progress, and 
with too light a step, towards the pulpit. I felt at 
once as if the day was lost. I expected no good, and 
shut up my heart against the youth who came in 
between me and my wonted Sabbath fare. He gave 



POWER OF HIS PREACHING, 



55 



out the psalm. ' You can't spoil that at any rate/ 
I said to myself. The prayer began ; but I scarcely 
heard the first part of it. Gradually my attention 
was attracted, but towards the manse seat I found 
my eye still wandering. Before the prayer was over 
I ceased to look away from the pulpit. When the 
sermon began I forgot all but the doctrine I was 
hearing. As he warmed up with his subject, the 
preacher became most vehement in his action ; every 
eye was rivetted on the speaker ; and suppressed 
sounds testified to the effect which his sermon was 
producing. His second discourse was so awe-inspir- 
ing that the audience became powerfully affected. 
Such was the awful solemnity of the doctrine and the 
vehemence of the preacher's manner, that I expected, 
ere he was done, every heart would be pierced, and 
that the very roof of the church would be rent. The 
sermon over, all were asking who the preacher was. 
' A young man from Edinburgh of the name of Mac- 
donald/ was the only answer that could be given." 



CHAPTER IV. 



TRANSLATION TO URQUHART — HIS PREDECESSOR — STATE OF THE 
PARISH — STATE OF THE NORTH— AN EVANGELIST REQUIRED— MR. 
MACDONALD PREPARED FOR HIS WORK. 

R. MAGDONALD was translated to Urqu- 
hart in ] 813, and his induction there took 
place on the first of September. He was 
presented by the patron, Mr. Forbes of 
Gulloden, on the petition of the parishioners, whose 
attention was first directed to him by Dr. Mackintosh 
and Hector Holm 5 the minister and the layman, to 
whose judgment they most readily deferred. 
, The name of his predecessor is fragrant, to all who 
are acquainted with his life and labours, with associa- 
tions of peculiar sweetness. Mr. Charles Calder was 
a Christian who left a persuasion of his holiness in 
the minds of all who came in' contact with him. As 
a minister he was eminent among many who were 
famous in the Church. In his congregation were not 
a few who had been converted and edified under his 
preaching, and who regarded him with love and vene- 
ration. For many years he had been feeding his 
flock with " the finest of the wheat/' and when he 




MR. calder's death. 



57 



died they scarce dared to hope they would again en- 
joy the privilege of a ministry by which they could 
be edified. Their feelings are well described by his 
successor, in a Gaelic poem written by him in honour 
of Mr. Calder's memory. 

" Sad and mournful tidings have we heard, tidings 
which deeply wounded us, and drove from mirth and 
song, all who could appreciate our loss. AVidely over 
all the land has the sad news spread, showering sharp 
arrows as it passed, and bringing with it the sorrow 
of the night. What saddened us, and many besides, 
and made us gloomy and grieved, is that our charm- 
ing pastor, Mr. Charles Calder, has been taken from 
us; and that from his lips we shall never hear again 
the glad tidings of the cross. His tongue is to-day 
under the seal of death. This, this, God, is our 
distress. The tidings have falle?i as mist around us, 
hiding as behind a cloud the sun, and taking our 
strength and courage from us. Sad indeed is Ferin- 
tosh! In some hearts the wound is so deep that, 
on this side of glory, they cannot hope it shall be 
healed. 

" O death ! small is thy compassion ! for thou hast 
pierced our pastor with thine arrow, and made this 
people desolate, even as lambs that have lost their 
mothers. 

" Though thou, who wast our guide, art taken from 
us, and though our voice and praise can no longer 
reach thee, we love still to refresh in our memory the 



58 



MR. CALDER's CHARACTER. 



fame which thou didst obtain and merit ; for this may 
prove a sweet savour to many whose hearts to-day 
are crushed, and in others it may awaken anxiety as 
to their lost condition. Far and wide has spread thy 
fame, as the pleasant savour of sweet spices; but all 
thine excellence was not known, for the veil of self- 
denial thou didst always spread over thy rare endow- 
ments ; thou sawest them not thyself, and others could 
not speak of them to thee. For the praise of men, 
for honour from the world, thou didst not labour — 
this to thine eyes seemed vain and worthless. That 
the Redeemer might be glorified, and that the precious 
and abiding fruit of His love should flourish in the 
souls of men, in reward of the travail of his soul — 
this was thy desire. That He might see, and be 
satisfied with, the fruit of his travail in the garden ; 
that wretched death-deserving sinners would submit 
to his grace ; that on his head the crown of salvation 
should be, as is meet ; and that this crown should for 
ever flourish — this was the highest satisfaction thou 
didst crave. 

"As grace, in rare measure, was given thee, in 
gifts thou didst excel many who were famous. An 
understanding acute and clear, a will eager, a mind 
heavenly, affections warm, a memory retentive, and 
a conscience tender, were thine. Learning, which in 
its own place is commendable, made thee polished as 
a shaft in thy Redeemer's hand. And, besides thy 
graces and gifts, thou hadst remarkable comeliness of 



MR. CALDEr's PREACHING. 



59 



form, with a handsome, cheerful, noble countenance, 
through which appeared the fervour of thy love. 

"Thy preaching was always distinct, powerful, 
clear, calm, and well arranged. So well chosen were 
thy words that they might have gone to press as 
they came from thy lips, and this thy hearers often 
wished. But it was the work of Christ on thine own 
soul which made thy doctrine to us a blessing. This 
brought all thy rare gifts under the constraining in- 
fluence of his love. This love moved thee forth in 
thy Master's name to seek his purchased spouse, 
and, as the blessed Eliezer, to bring her to the Re- 
deemer. Thou didst not go forth, as some do in our 
day, who deem a patron's call enough • men who have 
made Zion desolate, and oppressed the flock of Christ. 
Ere thou didst accept the pastoral office, thou wert 
called of God and men, and this knit thee and thy 
parish together in the bands of love. 

" Thou hadst the power of drawing sinners by 
strong cords of love, even the love of the cross. 
At the cross thou didst take thy stand, and thence 
thou didst declare to sinners that there alone was 
shelter and deliverance from destruction. There, in 
the salvation of sinners, justice and mercy and all the 
attributes of the God of glory met and kissed each 
other ; for when justice raised the flaming sword un- 
sheathed, the Shepherd stood up before it, and of 
that sharp sword He, the mighty one, bore the strokes, 
There justice found atonement^ and the law fulfil- 



60 



MR. CALDER'S PREACHING. 



ment; and all the perfections of God found ample 
satisfaction ; there the ransom price was laid down 
Which paid the debt and purchased life, for there was 
the end of every sacrifice, there the essence of all 
truth, the sum and substance of all throughout the 
glorious Bible. There Satan was overcome and 
spoiled. To us this was the destruction of the grave 
and of death, the opening of the fountain of salvation 
and of paradise itself at last. There was shed the 
efficacious blood which purchased to us peace and 
reconciliation in the day when its loud cry sounded 
in the ears of the God of mercy. For its sake he 
removes the curse from us, and bestows all blessings 
on us, and puts us in possession of happiness in his 
own place of glory and of blessedness. There mercy 
found a door by which to come out to the children 
of povertjr, with power to save them; never to return 
till all her desire is accomplished, and till she brings 
the children of destruction into paradise. 

" This cross, in these its properties, thou didst 
preach to this people, — and such were thy views, 
and thy power to speak of it, that thy report was to 
us most persuasive. Thou didst exhibit to us Christ 
crucified as the Alpha and Omega in the everlasting 
covenant of redemption, and in all the counsels of 
God — as the shelter from the storm to us — as our 
enduring defence from wrath — as the peace to our 
conscience — the oil to our wounds — the righteous- 
ness to clothe us — the sanctification to beautify us 



MR. CALDERS PREACHING. 



61 



— the balm to heal us — the still waters to give us 
drink — the light to guide us — our strength for all 
obedience — the life, the beauty, the fragrance of all 
our service — the food by which we live — our music 
to remove our sadness — our strength, our stay, our 
eternal foundation of hope — our shadow from the 
heat of the sun — our warmth amidst the cold of our 
distant land— our shield from the sharp arrows of 
the great enemy— as death to the man of sin within 
us — as a gracious help to us in every time of need, 
as well as the enduring fulness of our God which 
passeth knowledge. 

" Faithful, powerful, and compassionate, wast thou 
in proclaiming to wretched sinners all the terrors of 
the Lord. No preacher ever sounded more loudly 
the trumpet of God's law 7 in the ears of sinners ! 
Alas ! there are who proclaim destruction, the law's 
curse and God's wrath to us, but who show that they 
have for us no affection and no pity. Not like these 
wert thou, in telling us of our loss and danger; thine 
own soul was then in travail, and in thy very frown 
thy love to us might be seen. 

" Thou gavest to the flock of Christ pure food ; 
dividing to each, for his instruction and comfort, 
his own convenient portion. The dew of heaven 
on thy soul, and the love which made thy very 
breathing warm, often cheered them, and raised their 
hearts when sorrow bowed them down. Often, as 
they listened to thee have their hearts been melted, 



02 



MR. CALDETt IN HIS CLOSET. 



tlieir gloom dispelled, their enemies scattered. Sweet 
were thine utterances to them, bringing life and 
comfort into their hearts ; infusing vigour, and rais- 
ing off them the blight of death. The blind would 
get sight, and the wounded healing ; the frozen 
heart, on which winter had lain, would be melted ; 
the sad spirit whose exercises had faded, would blos- 
som as the fig-tree beneath the sun of summer. 
Scarce ever heard they one who could unravel, as 
thou couldst, their cases, clearly and wisely in well 
chosen words. The hidden things of their hearts, 
which were to them perplexing, seemed to them 
plain when they heard them from thy lips. Thou 
wast skilled to speak comfortably to many who were 
mourners among this people ; for when the golden 
trumpet sounded, and the influences from heaven 
streamed down on thee, their mourning and tears 
would give place to joy, and their gloom would flee 
away. 

/• Eut it was the power of the Spirit of God which 
made the trumpet sound profitable to us, and made 
thy messsge fruitful to us of good. And while we 
would acknowledge the benefit which we received 
from thy teaching during all thy ministry, we would 
ascribe all the glory to the Spirit of God, by whom 
alone it was made effectual 

" Often wert thou found in thy closet, pleading at 
the throne of grace, seeking life for thyself and food 
for thy flock. It was while on thy knees the dew 



MR. CALDER'S LIFE. 



reached thee, which made thy doctrine lively, fresh, 
and fragrant to us alway. And in preparing food 
for the heirs of mercy, let thy chamber witness to 
thy travail. Yea, it was with thee, as with David, 
when he would offer sacrifice, — to give what cost 
thee nothing thou didst not desire. 

" A faithful friend, in Church courts, wert thou to 
the flock of Christ, never yielding to those who 
would do them wrong. Lamb-like though thou 
wert, and always wishful to be gentle, thou wouldst 
stand up then lion-like in courage. 

" To the poor thou wert always compassionate and 
liberal ; among a hundred none but thy spouse was 
thine equal. Thou and she lived among us, like two 
gentle streams from one fountain, communicating, in 
love, to the poor who had grace, and in compassion 
to those who lacked it. 

" To thy faithful discharge of social duties, let thy 
friends bear witness. Not in thy teaching only didst 
thou exhibit the life of godliness ; it flowed out in 
all thine actions during all thy years in the wilderness. 
There are who preach of works as e the all ' of re- 
ligion, in their dry, cold, sapless doctrine, while their 
own works are vile. But what gave beauty to thy 
words in our eyes, and made thy doctrine seem to us 
most comely, was, that thy words were attested by 
thy works. The fruit of the holy and gracious 
Spirit poured out on thee, broke forth in manifest 
beauty day by day in thine actions. This so pre- 



C4 



MR. CALDER'S SUCCESSOR. 



served thy character from reproach that even enemies 
could find no occasion against thee, except, as in the 
ease of Daniel, on account of thy godliness alone. 
Thine was ' the path of the just,' which, like the 
pure and shining light, increases more and more till 
the eternal day of glory. 

" Thou wert as a tree in the house of the Lord, 
ever stately, green, and fruitful ; and when thou 
wast old and grey-headed, then did thy freshness 
and beauty abound the more. For eight and thirty 
years we enjoyed thy labour of love ; and during 
all that time we never wearied of thee. Sooner 
shall the water be seen flowing up the steep ascent 
on the breast to the brow of the mountain ; sooner 
shall the birds of the air cease to sing to us, than 
that thou, Charles, shalt be dropt out of memory. 
Nor shall thy doctrine be forgotten by those who 
were nourished by it ; for it was anointed by the 
dew of grace, and shall in freshness survive even 
death itself." 

If Mr. Calder's successor had been a man of 
questionable piety, the people of Urquhart would 
never have received him. If he had been a man of 
slender gifts, though of undoubted piety, he never 
could have commanded their respect, and his influence 
would have been comparatively small. If he had been 
a man of the same stamp, in respect of intellect and 
manner, a comparison would have been instituted 
between him and Mr. Calder, which was sure to be 



THE PARISH OF URQUHAKT. 



65 



unfavourable to the former. If he bad failed to show 
his profound respect for bis predecessor's memory, 
and to remind his people of his life and labours, by 
merely seeming anxious to wean them from their 
first love, he would have alienated their affection 
from himself. But Mr. Macdonald was one whom 
they all could receive as a man of God ; whose at- 
tainments could not but command respect ; whose 
labours the Lord had already blessed, and His 
people highly prized ; whose style of preaching 
was so different, that his congregation could love 
and respect him, without the fear of preferring 
him to Mr. Calder ; and Mr. Macdonald, instead 
of attempting to alienate from his predecessor's 
memory the warm affection of his hearers, laboured 
to deepen in their hearts an impression of his excel- 
lence. 

It was a highlj 7 cultivated field on which he then 
began to labour as the minister of Urquhart. The 
Session was large, and composed of men of undoubted 
piety, some of whom were talented, and all of whom 
were respected. Rare men and true, as Christians 
and office-bearers, were Vass, Calder, M/Intosh, 
Gordon, Ross, Urquhart, and Mackenzie, — -and by 
their influence the minister's hands were greatly 
strengthened. In the congregation were many who 
had felt the power, and who bore the fruits, of the 
gospel. From neighbouring parishes came many 
praying hearers, seeking the bread of life. Besides 

(103) " 5 



66 



THE SUITABLE POST. 



the stated services on Sabbath, and the ordinary 
prayer and fellowship meetings in church, there were 
regular prayer-meetings in the various districts of 
the parish. Discipline had been always faithfully 
administered. Collections for missionary objects 
were regularly raised, and were always liberal. 
With very few exceptions all the parishioners at- 
tended church. 

This was just the post for the minister who was 
destined to be " The Apostle of the North/' Had 
he been set down in a parish which had not enjoyed 
a gospel ministry, the immediate field of labour would 
have demanded all his care, and from the work of 
cultivating the home waste, he could have spared no 
time for evangelizing the region around. But 
Urquhart could spare a portion of its pastor's labour 
to other places. That congregation could bear the 
trial of its minister's frequent absence without being 
scattered or disaffected. Often, indeed, did their 
minister thus try them. Sometimes when they heard 
him not once in six weeks, they would murmur, and 
resolve to remonstrate with him on his return. An 
opportunity of doing so they would not get before 
the Sabbath ; and during his preaching then their fit 
of fretfulness would pass away, and his cheerful 
greeting of them, when they met, would secure a 
smiling reception in return. A stranger, from a 
parish whose minister was a Moderate, once met an 
Urquhart man during one of his minister's long 



AN EVANGELIST REQUIRED. 67 

tours. " How is your minister ?" he inquired. " I 
can't tell you/' was the reply, " we have neither 
heard nor seen him for six weeks. It is really too 
bad/' he added, " that he should be so long away 
from his own parish." " Indeed it is/' rejoined the 
other, " but I can suggest to you a plan by which 
you can have your minister every Sabbath." " And 
what is it?" "Exchange your minister for mine, 
and I'll engage that he will be left with you for all 
the Sabbaths of the year." " Oh, if that's your plan 
we will rather stick to what we have." " If you 
won't adopt my suggestion," the stranger said, " let 
me hear no more complaints about j'our minister's 
frequent absence. Be thankful that you have a 
minister of whose services all are anxious to have a 
share." 

The North needed an evangelist. True, there was 
then a Kobertson in Kingussie, a Fraser in Kirkhill, 
a Bayne in Kiltaiiity, a Mackenzie in Lochcarron, a 
Stewart in Dingwall, a Mackintosh in Tain, a Forbes 
in Tarbat, and a Macadam in Nigg, besides other 
ministers who were faithful and useful in their day; 
but these were scattered over a wide territory, and 
extensive wastes lay between and beyond them. True, 
also, the influence of these men so pervaded the whole^ 
region, that the popular conscience throughout the 
Highlands deferred to Evangelism, and even in parishes 
from which such preachers were excluded there were 
precious fruits of their labours ; but just on that 



68 



AN EVANGELIST'S WORK. 



account there was a prevalent desire for an approved 
evangelist, and a field ready for his labour. True, 
besides, the gospel had, before this time, made its 
deepest impression on the north. Even already, 
though the overt power of Evangelism had not begun 
to wane, the tide of spiritual influence had certainly 
begun to ebb. Even already the aged Christians 
felt that they were survivors of better times ; and if 
they looked with a tearful eye on the state of religion 
around them, it was not because they were idolizing 
their memories of the past, but because the days on 
which they looked back were days of the right hand 
of the Most High, brighter than the present with a 
manifestation of His glorious grace. But it was 
the busy work by which a day of grace, given to 
a people, is fitly closed by Him who gave it, for 
which such a labourer as a zealous evangelist was 
needed. If even then the season of spiritual pro- 
sperity gave foretokens of its close ; if the Lord was 
already withdrawing his right hand by which he had 
wrought such wonders of grace before ; if it now 
seemed as if he intended to bestow no abiding hus- 
bandry on any portion of his vineyard in the north, 
when he had begun to remove one by one those by 
whose ministry he had been rearing there the trees of 
righteousness ; if the work, now to be done, was the 
gathering in, right speedily, of outcasts scattered 
over the wide north, on whom God had set his love; 
and if instead of being trained for future work in 



MODEHATISM IN THE NORTH. 69 

the vineyard, travellers Zi onward were now only to 
receive occasional fare, to keep them alive in time of 
famine and to help them home ; the work of such a 
time as this could best be done by an evangelist. To 
this service, and not to the close supervision of a 
favoured spot, was Mr. Macdonald called, and for 
such a ministry he was prepared by the Lord. To 
give such a man for such service at such a time 
was becoming the God of grace. The sun flashed 
brightly before sinking into the clouds which lay 
over the horizon. It has not yet set ; but it is still 
behind the clouds; and the light of our evening hour 
is dim. 

In many parishes in the north there were ministers 
whose influence, if the most powerful, was also the 
most deadly. To all the worldliness, to much of the 
immorality, and to some of the power of the chieftains 
of other days, they added as their own the hypocrisy 
of a profession of Christianity. It is almost im- 
possible to conceive of some of these Highland 
impersonations of Moderatism. If a few of them 
were contiguous in a district preserved from the 
intrusion of enthusiasts, fearing no Clrurch censures, 
and feeling no restraint from the public opinion which 
their own influence had chiefly formed, they lived 
as do those who care not though all should see the 
brand of evil on their brow. The parson in one of 
these parishes was the great cattle-dealer at the 
market, the leading dancer at the wedding, the toast- 



70 A MODERATE MINISTER'S SABBATH. 

master at the farmer's dinner, and if the last to slide 
off his chair at the drinking bout, it was because he 
was more " seasoned " than the rest. He was the 
man of all others of whom evil doers were least 
afraid. On Sabbath he preached a borrowed sermon, 
Which he had read so often that he himself was half 
asleep in delivering it, and their sound sleep alone 
made the infliction tolerable to those who lounged 
before him. He would make up to some of them 
for the fasting in the church by a feasting in the 
manse ; and in gluttony and ungodly jesting he and 
they together would spend the Sabbath evening. 
One of these, during the Peninsular war, instead of 
delivering a sermon, used sometimes to read to his 
people the accounts of the battles as the news came 
home. On one occasion, a false report of Napoleon's 
death reached this country, and the minister told it 
to his people with all the comments on the great 
event given in the paper which he was wont to read. 
Before the next Sabbath, it was ascertained that the 
report was false ; so on that day he began his address 
by saying, " It was all lies I told you last Sabbath. 
Napoleon the scoundrel is yet alive ! ? 

On a cold day in April, in the first quarter of this 
century, a man, w T ith a face remarkable for its want 
of expression and of skin, having on his head a hat 
not at all too good for a scarecrow, and wearing a 
canvas apron over a dress to which a covering was 
quite superfluous, was engaged behind a manse in 



SPECIMENS OF MODERATE MINISTERS. 71 

the Highlands in plastering with clay the walls of a 
henhouse. For lack of trowel he used his broad 
palms. But the hands, though npt unused to labour, 
could not, scaithless, take the place of iron, for the keen 
frosty air cut them into furrows. A few days after 
he started on a journey. His hands, with their 
wounds still open, were wrapped up in flannel bags ; 
the hat, which he wore while plastering, was replaced 
by one a very little better ; and over a suit that was 
black on his marriage-day, he wore a long drab great- 
coat. He arrived at night at another manse within 
the same presbytery. Next morning, in the attire 
of the day before, he might be seen mounting a 
donkey at the door, amidst the tittering of the 
inmates who were looking on. His host, who ac- 
companied him, was well mounted on a horse, and 
was attired as befitted a foppish squire. They rode 
together till they approached the town to which they 
were going, when the equestrian, hurrying on before, 
and making the best use of his time in announcing 
the rare spectacle coming after, despatched a crowd 
of urchins to meet his companion, who, flurried and 
fretted, entered the town soon after on the donkey, 
amidst the shouts of an uproarious escort. These 
two men were ministers ; and it was thus they 
travelled to their Synod — the one an impersonation 
of insensate dulness, and the other of reckless levity. 

There were not a few such ministers throughout 
the Highlands, who, as Upas trees, were spreading 



72 



THE HIRELING'S WORK. 



decay around them ; who were pests to all who were 
in earnest about salvation, and were zealous for the 
Lord of hosts ; and who formed a medium between 
the Church and the world, through which the pro- 
fanity of the ungodly came in to desecrate the house 
of God, and through which religion appeared to the 
world as a despicable sham, or at the best, merely as 
a thing by which worthless men could earn a living. 
One of these in the neighbourhood, or in the midst of 
u sheepstealers," had a sorry life of it ; and in revenge 
for being checked in his ungodliness and deserted by 
his flock, did all he could to make their life uncom- 
fortable also. The sheep who strayed would be 
closely watched. They could not be received in other 
places without his knowledge. Inquiry would be 
made who gave a token to his parishioners without 
his certificate, if they were known to have communi- 
cated. The matter would be brought before the 
presbytery, and all sorts of threats employed against 
those who would indulge in disorderly practices in fu- 
ture. If one of the deserters had a child unbaptized, he 
would be closely watched. Not applying to the parish 
clergyman even after the infant has been weaned, 
suspicion would be excited, that his child has been 
baptized elsewhere. If there seemed to be evidence 
to convict a certain minister of having done it, a 
complaint to the presbytery would be preferred 
against him. This rendered the greatest caution 
necessary. Often has a baptism party come at dead 



THE GAELIC SCHOOLS. 



73 



of night to the manse of an evangelical minister from 
the parish of one of these oppressors. In such a state 
of things an evangelist was greatly needed who was 
ready for every opening that gave him access with 
the bread of life to starving flocks, and whose frequent 
journeyings gave him many opportunities of relieving 
the oppressed. 

There were outlying districts, on the mainland and 
in the Western Isles, never before visited by evan- 
gelical preachers, and where the people remained in 
a state of heathenism. Into some of these the light 
was introduced by means of the Gaelic schools. The 
teachers of these schools w^ere, with very few excep- 
tions, godly, zealous, and judicious men. Though 
greatly fettered by stringent rules in carrying on 
their work, and closely watched by the parish 
ministers who had forged their bonds, they were 
enabled to sow the good seed in the places where 
they were stationed, and there were precious fruits 
of their labours. Wherever a Gaelic school had been 
planted, a few were found who were longing for the 
gospel. There were cries to heaven from many spots 
in the midst of the desert for the visits of an evan- 
gelist; and in answer to these prayers, Mr. Macdonald 
was appointed to his peculiar work. Often have 
these lonely pilgrims been cheered by his visits and 
his sermons. 

An evangelist's work, in the wide Highlands, must 
be always arduous ; but when Mr. Macdonald entered 



74 REQUISITES FOR AN EVANGELIST'S WORK. 



upon it, a small portion of the country only was 
opened up by roads. The distances were long, and 
must be either walked or ridden over. The labourer 
in that field required a frame, built up with strong- 
bone and muscle, in a constitution without taint, 
urged by the active power of an unflagging zeal. A 
temper not easily ruffled was just as needful as a 
body not easily wearied ; for he must meet with 
many provocations, which he would require to bear 
with patience. He must be fond too of looking at 
the bright side of things. He must have a power 
of ready sympathy, that adapts him, for the time, to 
the varied cases with which he comes in contact, 
without retaining a deep impression of any of them. 
His memory must be retentive, his habits of thinking 
exact, and he must have the gift of ready utterance. 

In all these respects Mr. Macdonald was admirably 
adapted by Him who made him, and who made him 
"new," for the work to which he devoted his remaining 
years. Robust, healthy, and elastic in his physique, 
his mental powers and endowments were also such as 
an evangelist's work required. His intellect, urged 
forward by a temperate ambitiousness, had carefully 
surveyed the surroundings of its progress, and re- 
tained the full benefit of all its advances. He was 
quite as careful to arrange as to increase his stores 
of knowledge. He conceived clearly what came in 
contact with his mind, and his well-defined views 
were carefully balanced and laid up in a retentive 



THREE CLASSES OF EVANGELISTS. 



memory. His reading was careful as well as ex- 
tensive : he did not appropriate, without appreciating, 
the researches of others. 

There are some whose minds are like a disordered 
shop. The shelves are full, but all is so huddled on 
them, that the merchant cannot at any time lay his 
hand readily on what he wants. There are others 
like some catch-eye shops, all whose wares are in their 
windows. Well-ordered and showy their windows 
are, but there is no reserve behind ; their best and 
their all is seen at once. But there are a few shops 
which show a good window, and have full and well- 
ordered shelves behind. In these the merchants can 
lay their hands at once on what is needed, and the 
oftener you deal with them the more you know of 
the extent of their resources. Like these last, in the 
wealth and arrangement of his stores of knowledge, 
must the mind of a good evangelist be. If like the 
first, he would be most unwieldy, utterly lacking the 
power of ready adaptation, without which hiswork can- 
not be fitly done. If like the second, he himself would 
in course of time weary of uttering the same things 
over and over and over again, and his addresses would 
soon become stale to others. There are some soidisant 
evangelists whose addresses have been worn thread- 
bare, because they cannot vary them ; and whose 
power of endurance, in being able to deliver them so 
often, is only equalled by theirs who could give them 
more than a second patient hearing. 



76 MR. MACDONALD FITTED FOR HIS WORK. 

Mr. Macdonald's early experience of the power of 
the truth was just of the type whose fitting fruitful- 
ness was an evangelist's work. In the law's light he 
clearly saw his guilt and danger as a sinner, and 
the arrow of conviction was driven deep into his 
heart. He saw and felt, as but few besides, 
the desperateness of self-righteous labour. His con- 
ception of the gospel plan of salvation was propor- 
tionally clear, He " received the word in much 
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost." The Lord 
established his goings on the rock when he placed 
him on it. The grave clothes were removed from 
this risen one at His command who said, " Loose him 
and let him go and in the enjoyment of gospel 
liberty he was ushered into gospel service. 

He was a scribe, already well instructed in the 
doctrine of justification by faith; not by the mere 
collection and collocation of sound propositions on 
the subject, but by being instructed by the word, 
and subjected to the power, both of the law and of 
the gospel. He felt what he knew; and he knew 
what he felt ; unlike those who know somewhat of 
the doctrine, but who have never felt the power of 
the truth in which it is revealed ; and not as others, 
whose hearts are affected by the truth, but whose 
minds are ill-informed regarding it. 

He early acquired the habit of careful preparation 
for the pulpit. He laboured to apprehend his sub- 
ject with definiteness, and to state his views with 



THE HIGHLAND EVANGELIST. 



77 



precision. His love of system moved him always to 
attempt an exact arrangement of his ideas. His ac- 
quaintance with the scheme of gospel truth enabled 
him to allocate its proper place to every doctrine 
which he handled. His power of illustration was 
sufficient to make his sermons interesting and clear. 
Always textual, he avoided the sameness which mono- 
tonizes their effusions, who discourse on a subject in- 
stead of expounding a text. 

Freed from entangling fears regarding his own 
interest in Christ, and taught to tell his troubles only 
to the Lord, he could carry a sustaining joyousness 
of heart with him to every portion of his work. His 
natural cheerfulness, sanctified into Christian happi- 
ness, could win for him admission into hearts and 
homes and pulpits that would else have been shut 
against him. 

Such was Mr. Macdonald at the period of his in- 
duction at TJrquhart, and of his entering on his great 
work as the Highland evangelist. 




CHAPTER V. 

his wife's death, and his first communion at lrquhart— action 
sermon — results — journal — tisit to perthshire — awaken- 
ing in glenlyox and bread albane — the " dumb dogs" attempt 

TO BITE. 

R. MACDONALD was in his thirty-fourth 
year when he came to Ross-shire — young 
enough to have retained all his vigour, 
and old enough to have acquired skill by 
experience for the great work before him. 

Within his first year in Urquhart his wife died. 
Soon after her last illness began, her husband, in ful- 
filment of a promise to visit his father, and of an en- 
gagement to preach for his old friend, the minister of 
Reay, started for Caithness. During the first mile of 
the j ourney his anxiety gath ered strength enough to turn 
his face homewards again. His wife, not then appre- 
hensive of danger, urged him to resume his journey; 
and he at last agreed to do so. He was absent only a 
few days when Mrs. Macdonald became seriously ill, 
and suddenly died. A messenger was despatched, with 
the news of her death, who met Mr. Haconald on his 
journey homewards. The week after his return had 
been appointed as the communion season at Urquhart. 




THE FIRST COMMUNION. 



79 



His elders waited upon him to suggest that the com- 
munion services should be postponed. " No, no/' he 
said, "let not the death of my wife interfere with com- 
memorating the death of my Saviour. I feel very unfit 
for my share of the service; but there are able minis- 
ters engaged to carry on the work.' 1 Thus, within the 
same week, he had to perform the sad task of laying 
the remains of his wife in the grave, and to engage in 
the public services of his first communion at Urquhart. 

On that occasion an immense crowd assembled. 
As many as ten thousand were in " the burn" on Sab- 
bath. To this vast multitude Mr. Macdonald preached 
that day. " I will betrothe thee unto me for ever" 
was his text. From the very commencement of the 
service there was an unusual stillness in the congre- 
gation, and all seemed under the spell of an unwonted 
solemnity. They knew the preacher's affliction, and 
they could not even look on him unmoved. His 
sorrow touched their hearts, and his self-denial, cour- 
age, and devotedness to the service of the gospel, ap- 
pealed powerfully to their conscience. He was mar- 
vellously helped by the Lord in his work. His soul 
was lifted as on eagle's wings above the sorrow which 
before depressed him. The widower was lost in the 
spouse ; the earthly was forgotten in the spiritual 
relation ; and, unthinking of his own distress, he gave 
himself up to the praise of Christ. The power of the 
Lord was signally working in "the burn" that day. 
Few eyes were tearless in that vast assembly ; and 



80 



EARLY FRUITS. 



when, in the evening, he appealed to the unconverted, 
commending to them the love of Jesus, urging on 
their acceptance his offer of marriage, and warning 
them of the danger of refusing his advances, 
the hearts of many sinners were pierced. The ex- 
citement at last was very great, the groans and out- 
cries of the stricken ones sometimes drowning the 
voice of the preacher. During the closing service on 
Monday the same scene w T as repeated. 

The awakening, then begun, continued for some 
time. On the 12th of January 1816, Mr. Macdon- 
ald thus writes in his journal : — 

" In the course of this and of the last week had 
some visits from young persons under conviction, 
which were very agreeable, but which made me feel 
how ill-qualified I was to comfort them. The Lord's 
time is not come. But, oh, how much I need to un- 
derstand more clearly and experimentally the sim- 
plicity of the gospel ! 

" Since I came to the parish in 1813, I think there 
have been awakened under my ministry, known to 
myself, besides others unknown to me, and who have 
not called upon me: — 



Belonging to my own parish, . 


. 12 


Contin, Urray, and Fodderty, 


. 8 


Kiltearn, Alness, and Kosskeen, 


. 6 


Creich, Tain, Fearn, and Tarbat, . 


. 9 


Resolis and Cromarty, .... 


*' .V 8 


Avoch, . . . 


. . 2 


Alness [at Sacrament], .... 


. 8 


Ardclach, Croy, Kirkhill, 


. 5 


In all [the Lord be merciful to them], . 


. 58" 



DEDICATION. 



81 



On New Year's day, 1816, he began the journal 
in which the preceding is an entry. On that day he 
writes : — 

" Being now in the thirty-seventh year of my life 
and the eleventh of my ministry, and desiring to be 
humbled before my God, for the misimprovement of 
past time — especially considering that the best part of 
my life is over— for the little return I have to make 
to Him for the opportunities, the means, the talents, 
the education, and [I trust] the grace, which He has 
conferred upon me ; I would, this day, resolve in 
the strength of his grace henceforth to devote my- 
self more than ever to Him and to His work ; to con- 
sider myself as not my own but His ; and His, I 
trust, by redemption, and therefore bound to be at 
His disposal, and to glorify Him in my body and spirit 
which are His. And in order to this I w T ould, more 
than I have hitherto done, attend to, — 1. Earnest, 
frequent, importunate prayer. 2. The reading and 
searching of the Scriptures. 3. Meditation. 4. The 
state of my heart and life as to personal godliness. 
5. My public ministry ; zeal for God ; love to the 
souls of men ; preparation for the work ; readiness 
to speak the word, to be instant in season and out 
of season. 

" Among the many omissions of my past life which 
I have to lament, that of not keeping a diary, con- 
taining some account of the Lord's dealing with my 
soul, and of the work of my ministry, is not the least. 



82 



EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 



I was chiefly prevented from this by a false humility, 
as not thinking anything done in me or by me worthy 
of being recorded ; and as reckoning myself so far 
behind those who usually kept such diaries that it 
would be presumption on my part to attempt any- 
thing of that kind. I now find, however, that this 
was a mistake, and I have no doubt that Satan was 
at the bottom of it ; for if the Lord wrought in me 
and by me in any measure, however unworthy I am, 
— and none is more so, as He knows, on the face of 
the earth — His work deserves to be recorded, and 
some account of it might be serviceable to myself, 
useful to others, and conducive in some measure to 
His glory. I would, therefore, in future endeavour 
to keep some account of my labours, with anything in 
my own soul, in providence regarding me, or in my 
success in the vineyard, which may be deserving of 
notice. And I begin with this year [181 6]." 

The resolution which he then formed was carried 
out to a certain extent during all his subsequent life. 
Of the journal only fragments remain, containing 
chiefly an account of his labours. 

The following entries serve to give an idea of his 
work at this period of his ministry : — 

"Jan. 5, 1816. — Preached last night at Inverness, 
from 1 Pet. ii. 17. In which I considered, 1. The 
character of the believer's God — ' the Father who, 
without respect of persons, judge th/ &c. 2. The 
character of his children — they ' call upon the Father/ 



EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 



83 



— and, 3. The duty enjoined in consequence — ' pass 
the time of your sojourning here in fear/ — the last 
of these referred to some future occasion. Enjoyed 
some liberty. 

" This day [Christmas O.S.], being an idle day with 
many, and much spent throughout the country in 
gossiping and dissipation, preached in my own church 
to a numerous congregation, from Eccles. ii. 1 -1 1. I 
hope the subject was suitable. 

"Jan. 7, Sabbath. — Preached Gaelic from Gen. 
xlvii. 8, 9 ; English from Deut. xxxii. 29. 

" Jan. 1 2 [New Year's Day O.S.]. Last Tuesday, 
the 9 th, held a meeting for baptisms at Hector Ur- 
quhart's — well attended — addressed the people from 
Luke v. 1 2, 1 3. Wednesday night, attended the 
English meeting at Inverness. Thursday night, 
preached there in English from Rom. viii. 6, latter 
clause, with some degree of freedom and, I trust, 
spirituality. Endeavoured to describe some of the 
characteristics of spiritual mindedness. Oh, that I 
possessed them! This day [Friday], being an idle 
day with many people [though not, alas ! idle in sin], 
I preached to a large congregation from Eccles. ii. 1 2— 
18, in some respects suitably to the season of the 
year, and the character of many of the audience. In 
the afternoon, about four o'clock, held a diet for bap- 
tisms at the schoolhouse, Culbokie, numerously at- 
tended. Addressed the people from Titus iii. 5, par- 
ticularly ' the washing of regeneration.' The season 



84 



MEMORANDA OF WORK. 



solemn — some degree of divine influence — a few in 
tears — three sobbed and cried. In the evening, at 
six, went to Mrs. Calder's. Addressed at worship 
from Ps. xc. 1. The occasion sweet and solemn. 

" Jan. 22 [Monday]. — Wednesday last I went to 
Inverness. Attended the meeting there in the even- 
ing — had much fredom in speaking. Thursday, re- 
turned to Hector Urquhart's at the west end of the 
parish, where I held a diet for baptisms. The barn 
was full. Addressed the people from Pro v. i. 20. 
Dwelt considerably on 'Wisdom crieth without/ The 
occasion was sweet to my own soul, and refreshing, I 
trust, to some of the Lord's people. But oh, wicked 
self! The Lord subdae it, and keep me humble! 
In the evening went to Mrs. Calder's. Addressed 
at worship from Ps. xl. last verse. Yesterday, 
preached in Gaelic from Isa. xxviii. 16, and in Eng- 
lish from Acts xxiv. 25. Enjoyed considerable free- 
dom in each sermon. Some apparent impression on 
the hearers — not a a few in tears. The description 
of the Kedeemer as a foundation I felt peculiarly in- 
teresting. May I improve this subject for myself; 
for, alas ! what if, after all, I am not built on this 
foundation. 

" Jan. 29 [Monday]. — Tuesday last I held a diet of 
examination. Yesterday, preached at Kiltearn, in 
Gaelic from 1 John iii. 1, 2, and in English from 
verse 3. The crowd immense. Enjoyed unexpected 
freedom — found some parts of the subject sweet in- 



ABOUNDING IN LABOURS. 



85 



deed. Spent the evening at Mountgerald. After 
ten the servants gathered with the family. Addressed 
at some length from Eph. ii., and with considerable 
ease and freedom. The Lord be praised for it ! Oh, 
how useful ministers might be if they acted as be- 
came their office ! 

"March 4 [Monday']. — Spent Tuesday and Friday 
in catechizing. Monday night at Mrs. Calder's. Ad- 
dressed from Ps. xxx. On Sabbath preached in Gaelic 
from Isa. xxviii. ] 6, and in English from Exod. xxiii. 3. 

" March J 1 . — Tuesday and Friday catechized. 
Monday night at Mrs. Calder's. Addressed from 
Ps. xxx. Yesterday, preached in Gaelic from 1 Cor. 
iii., and in English from Exod. xxiii. Had much 
freedom in the forenoon, in setting before myself and 
others the danger of building on the foundation ' wood, 
hay, stubble.' A certain clergyman present to whom 
many viewed the subject as applicable. Was led to 
it on Saturday, and did not know the cause. 

"March. 1 8. — Tuesday last, finished the catechizing 
diets in the church. A more than ordinary crowd. 
Addressed the people in conclusion from Prov. xxiii. 
23, f buy the truth and sell it not.' Some affected. 
In the afternoon went to the Ness. Addressed a 
considerable number, who met, with much freedom, 
from John iii. 32. Monday night at Mrs. Calder's. 
Addressed from Ps. xxx. Yesterday, preached in 
Gaelic from Matt. vi. 1-4, and in English from Exod. 
ix. 20, 21. Gaelic, afternoon, Ps. xliii. 5." 



86 



MRS. CALDER. 



The season, over which these notes are spread, was 
that portion of the year in which he laboured least; and 
if then his labours were so abundant, what must they 
have been in summer when they were more than 
doubled ? But though he then abounded in labours, 
he did not at that date reach the full amount of 
service which occupied him in later j^ears. 

Mrs. Calder, whose name occurs repeatedly in his 
journal, was his predecessor's widow. His kind atten- 
tions to her she highly appreciated. The deep sor- 
row of a desolate widow, and the frequent fears of 
a timid Christian, made her very dependent on the 
comfort of his cheering visits. While rejoicing in 
the apparent success of Mr. Macdonald's ministry, it 
was to her a trial to look back on what seemed the 
comparative unfruitfulness of her husband s labours. 
Having expressed this feeling to Mr. Macdonald, he 
said to her, " What j^ou now see, my dear Mrs. 
Calder, is the upspringing of the seed which your 
husband was sowing. The farmer sends his best 
man to sow the seed ; but, the field once sown, he 
sends any boy who may happen to be at hand, to 
harrow it. The field must be harrowed as well as 
sown, but the sowing is the more important work. 
It was thus ' the Lord of the harvest ' dealt in ap- 
pointing work for your husband and for me. He, 
the skilled labourer, was sent to sow the good seed, 
and I, a novice, was sent after him to do a lowlier 
w r ork." 



EREADALBANE. 



b7 



In the light of the extracted notes we see him 
watching with an observant eye the Lord's dealings 
with his soul ; already skilled to keep his w T ork in- 
dependent of his experience ; and subordinating all 
to the great ends of the service of the gospel. 

Tidings of the awakening at Urquhart reached 
Breadalbane. Mr. Findlater then occupied a mis- 
sionaiy station there. He was a godly man, a 
faithful fervent preacher, and the lack of learning 
and talent in his discourses was well supplied by 
the unction of a broken heart. He was stirred up 
by the good news of the Lord's work in Ross-shire 
to seek an outpouring of the Spirit on Breadalbane. 
Prayer-meetings were set up; and not long after the 
" dry bones " began to move. One after another 
came to Mr. Findlater asking, " What must I do to 
be saved?" He wrote to Mr. Macdonald, imploring 
his assistance at his next communion ; and he agreed 
to go. Of that communion season at Ardeonaig the 
following account is given by the Rev. D. Campbell, 
Kiltearn ; who, along with his brother, the Free 
Church minister of Lawers, looks back on that time 
as the dawning of a better day. 

" On Thursday Mr. Russel of MutLill preached in 
English from 1 Kings viii. 38 ; and Mr. Macdonald 
in Gaelic from John xvi. 9. During the Gaelic 
sermon an extraordinary degree of attention was 
excited, and towards the close of it a young woman 
from Glenlyon cried out, being unable to repress her 



88 



COMMUNION AT ARDEOXAIG. 



feelings. Mr. Macdonald preached an evening ser- 
mon at Lawers from Ps. xxxii. 6. Owing to the 
darkness of the night, the poor people of Glenlyon 
could not return home ; and some of them were 
quite unfit for the journey, a sense of sin pressing so 
heavily upon their hearts. Those who were able to 
go home, next morning, brought w T ith them the 
tidings of Mr. Macclonald's arrival and of the effects 
of his preaching ; news which excited an ardent 
desire to hear the extraordinary preacher, and to 
witness scenes before unheard of in Breadalbane ; while 
some desired to experience such influences themselves 
as were felt by others. The result was that the 
most of the Glenlyon people were in Ardeonaig on 
Sabbath. Mr. Macdonald preached the action- 
sermon in the tent that day to an assembly of 
people more numerous than had ever met before in 
Breadalbane. His text was Isa. liv. 5, c Thy Maker 
is thine husband/ The sermon was accompanied 
with an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit. 
Some cried out ; others were melted into tears ; 
while many laboured in vain to suppress their feel- 
ings. The place was then ' no other than the house 
of God and the gate of heaven/ Mr. Macdonald 
preached on Monday from Luke xvi. 2, a sermon by 
which many more were awakened ; so that this oc- 
casion proved to many in Glenlyon, and to some in 
Breadalbane, to be like the month Abib to Israel, 
the first of all the months/' 



SKELETON OF A BLESSED SERMOX. 



89 



The most memorable sermon, then and ever preached 
by him, was the action sermon, on a text cognate to that 
on which he preached on his first communion Sab- 
bath at Urquhart. Hundreds of abler sermons has 
he preached, but none which the Lord more signally 
blessed. It was never fully written out, but the 
following skeleton of it was found among his papers, 
and is here subjoined that it may serve to give an 
idea of the kind of preaching which the Lord de- 
lights to honour. It was delivered in Gaelic, but 
the notes were written by his own hand in English. 

" Isa. liv. 5, ' Thy Maker is thy husband.' 

" Remarks on context. Consider I. The parties. 
1. The Spouse. Every true believer, and as such 
married to the Lord. But by nature, (1.) In a state 
of degradation — a child of Satan — a slave. (2). 
Drowned in debt — of obedience to the law, and of 
suffering to the justice of God ; unable to pay, and 
therefore a prisoner. (3.) Without spiritual beauty ; 
but on the contrary, altogether defiled, deformed, 
loathsome (Isa, i. 7; Rev. iii. 17, 18; Ezek. xvi. 6), 
(4.) Dead — spiritually (Ezek. xxxvii.; Eph. ii. 1* 2). 
(5.) In a helpless condition. None else would or 
could look after her or relieve her, nor had she any 
strength in herself. (6.) With all this she was full 
of enmity and rebellion against her Husband — ■ 
waged constant war with him — thrust the sword 
into his side. 2. The Husband. Thy Maker — the 



90 



" THY MAKER IS THTXE HUSBAND." 



Lord of hosts — the holy One of Israel. God, God 
in our nature. Consider, (1.) His rank. The Lord 
— Lord of lords and King of kings — the Son — 
honoured by all the heavenly host — adored by 
the redeemed — the source of all created rank and 
greatness. (2.) His riches. The God of the whole 
earth — heir of all things — all fulness in him — rich 
in what the spouse needs. Rich in merit to pay 
her debts, rich in grace to make her rich — inherit- 
ance that fadeth not away. (3.) His beauty (Ps. 
xlv. 2 ; Cant, ii.; Heb. i. 2, 3). All created beauty 
from him — he can beautify his spouse — he can 
attract and ravish sinners with his beauty. (4.) His 
foiuer (Isa. ix. 6, 7). As God, his power is infinite 
— manifested in creation, providence, and redemp- 
tion. Power to quicken — to deliver — to subdue — 
to protect — to preserve, <fcc. (Ps. ex. 3). (5.) His 
love. Oh, what shall we say of this ! (See Prov. 
viii. 30, 31). He died for his spouse — she was 
formed out of his side — waters cannot drown his 
love — manifested, in rescuing her in a day of power 
out of her wretched condition ; and, after her 
espousal, in abiding with her, in compassion towards 
her, in holding communion with her, &c. And, oh, 
what shall its exercise be through eternity! (6.) His 
faithfulness — in reproving her faults, in never for- 
saking her, in not receiving accusers' reports of her. 
Oh, how faithful is he ! 

" II. The Connection. Marriage. ' Thy husband.' 



" THY MAKER IS THINE HUSBAND." 



91 



A relation is established which is called union. This 
is variously represented in Scripture ; and subsists 
between every believer and Christ. Here consider, 
ij Christ offers himself in marriage to the soul, by 
the gospel, in which he reveals his excellent pro- 
perties, and offers himself to the soul as involved in 
the ruin described. This is the design of the glori- 
ous doctrines and invitations of the gospel (Isa. lv. 
1-4; Matt. xi. 28; Rev. xxii. 17). 2. Gospel means 
and ministers are employed for the purpose of repre- 
senting this proposal, (Gen. xxiv.) The apostle 
espoused Corinthians to Christ. Oh, what an hon- 
ourable work ! How faithful should ministers be ! 
3. The Spirit is sent forth — to make the soul 
sensible of his condition — to reveal Christ in his 
properties and proposals — to make him willing to 
receive Him — and to loose him from every other 
attachment (Rom. viii. 4, 9 ; Ps. xlv. 10 ; John 
xvi. 9-15). 4. The soul, in consequence, under a 
sense of need and unworthiness, and having a view 
of the object, approving of the terms and accepting 
of the offer, casts himself at Christ's feet — resigns 
himself to the Redeemer and follows him. This is 
the act of faith and closes the union, and is the 
foundation of all future intercourse and communion. 
* My Beloved is mine.' 

"Here is, 1. A marriage with the consent of all 
parties — Father, Son, and Spirit ; law and justice ; 
angels and saints. 2. A wonderful marriage. 3. A 



9-2 



FRUITS OF OXF SERMON. 



joyful marriage. 4. A sure marriage. 5. An hon- 
ourable marriage. 6. An everlasting marriage. 

" III. The happy results of this marriage. The 
spouse has from her husband, in consequence, 1. A 
change of nature (John iii. 6 ; Ezek. xvi.), in order 
to love, obey, and enjoy him. 2. A glorious robe 
as a wedding garment — his own righteousness for 
covering, shelter, and ornament (Ps. xlv. 13; Rev. 
iii. 18). 3. Beauty. Graces of the Spirit (Ps. 
xlv. 13). 4. Provision. Food — drink — light — 
life — liberty — joy, &c. 5. Protection — from enemies 
— sin, Satan, and the world. 6. Communion. The 
enjoyment of his presence. 7. Riches. 8. Intro- 
duction to heaven at last, and eternal residence there 
(Ps. xlv. 14, 15). 

" Hence, 1. Self-examination. Marks of those who 
are not, and of those who are, married to this Hus- 
band. 

" 2. Sinners, consider your condition — accept of 
the proposal (Matt. xxii. 5). Different classes. 

" 3. Saints. Draw nigh this day, behold what 
your Husband did and suffered for you." 

The writer once met a Gaelic teacher, who was 
accounted a godly man by all who knew him, and 
who took a leading part in every good work in the 
district where he lived and taught, and who declared 
that he knew fifty persons who were awakened 
through that sermon at Ardeonaio- • that he himself 
was one of these ; and that he was the only one of 



THE MODERATES DISTURBED. 



93 



them all whose conversion he was tempted to sus- 
pect. 

His work in Perthshire then was to Mr. Mac- 
donald most delightful. His soul was in a holy 
passion of fervent zeal for the salvation of sinners. 
His preaching was marvellous in its unction and its 
power ; and of every sermon there was some fruit to 
God. Glenlyon and Breadalbane were ever after 
green spots in his memories of the past ; and the 
remembrance of the working of the Lord's right 
hand, in these favoured places, often cheered him 
when his heart was fainting in the toil of later and 
less fruitful years. 

His visits to Perthshire were frequent thereafter, 
and his services extended to all the parishes to which 
he could get access. Some of the slumbering 
stipend-lifters, whose rest had been disturbed by the 
work of God around them, locked their churches and 
their parishes against him. One of them, when 
pressed to allow him to preach on a week day in his 
parish, said, " No, the command is, ' Six days shalt 
thou labour ; ' u insisting that the fence of this com- 
mand confined all preaching to the Sabbath. 
Preaching " in season u might, in his opinion, be 
useful for earning a stipend, but for preaching " out 
of season " he had no toleration. The matter was 
at last taken up by the Presbytery ; and Mr. Find- 
later w T as summoned to give an account of his con- 
duct in asking the wild man from Ross-shire to visit 



94 



THE PRESBYTERY OF WEEM. 



quiet Breadalbane. An overture to the Assembly 

against vagrant preaching was proposed ; but ere it 
was ready to take wing to Edinburgh, the Presbytery 
got ashamed of their bantling and smothered it. The 
minister of Killin, on being asked why he had given 
his pulpit to the enthusiast from the north said, " I 
think we might give our people a treat now and 
then, when they put up with our gibberish all the 
rest of the year.' 5 




CHAPTER VI. 



ABOUNDING IN LABOURS — SPINNINGDALE — STRATHBOGIE — 
AT THE BAR OF THE ASSEMBLY. 



m 



N 1817 his extra-parochial work had 
already so increased, that it was the 
smaller portion of the year he spent at 
home. In summer and autumn he 
preached but rarely in his own pulpit. Tuesday and 
Wednesday were the only days of any week during 
these seasons which he could spend in "the study;" 
and not unfrequently these were preaching days as 
well as all the others. This amount of work was 
not only cheerfully but carefully performed. He 
never delivered an extempore address. He did not 
write new sermons every week, but he was always 
ready to deliver a carefully prepared discourse. It 
was by availing himself of every hour which he 
spent at home that could be devoted to study, and 
by acquiring the habit of carrying on a train of 
thought while travelling, that he was able to perforin 
efficiently so large an amount of service. 

If he was officiating in a parish at some distance 
from home, he usually preached on his return to each 
intervening congregation to which he had access. 



96 



THE SERMON AT SPINNINGDALE. 



Some churches were locked against him, and against 
all whom the people were most anxious to hear ; 
and many a wistful look he would cast at these 
churches as he was obliged to pass them by. In not 
a few instantes he succeeded in opening the church 
for himself by calling on the minister, and by his 
genial and pleasant manner making him ashamed to 
refuse his offer of preaching to his people. By 
opening the ministers heart, he opened his church, 
with the strong key of kindliness. But some stern 
men were proof against all such influence. No 
power could move them to admit " the wild man of 
Ferintosh " into their pulpits. But he w 7 ould not be 
baulked. On the nearest spot to the forbidden 
ground on which he had license to preach, he would 
assemble the people of the recusant parson, and 
preach to them en passant, on one of his evan- 
gelistic tours. 

Having being asked by the people of Dornoch, 
during the incumbency of Dr. Bethune, to preach in 
their parish, he at once agreed to do so, if the con- 
sent of the parish minister were obtained ; and he 
appointed a day. The report of the coming sermon 
spread before the parish-keeper was consulted. 
When he was applied to for permission he resolutely 
refused it. The appointed day arrived, and the ex- 
pected preacher appeared, but the doctor w r as inex- 
orable, and the cathedral was closed. But the parish 
of Creich was not forbidden ground ; so the preacher 



DEATH OF DR. BETHUNE. 



07 



and his congregation set off to a spot in Spinning- 
dale where Creich touches the west boundary of 
Dornoch. The preacher stood on Creich soil, 
and the congregation sat within the parish of 
Dornoch. The service of that day was a most 
memorable one. The power of the Lord was work- 
ing with the gospel, and many a heart was pierced. 
There are some still on earth who remember that 
day with thankfulness, and there are a few iu 
heaven who cannot even there forget it. Such was 
the fervour of the preacher's spirit, fired as he was 
by love to Christ, and by pity for perishing souls, 
that his animation and eloquence were even to him 
unusual. He never preached with greater power. 
Ere the sermon closed, the spot on which he stood 
was worn down, by the action of his feet, into a pit, 
the form of which could for many years thereafter be 
pointed out to visitors. Often has that same spot 
been honoured since by the preaching of the gospel 
and by displays of the power and glory of the Lord. 

A few weeks after he preached at Spinningdale, 
Mr. Macdonald writes in his journal : (< Oct. 1 1th, 
1816. — This day heard of the sudden death of the 
Rev. Dr. Bethune, minister of Dornoch. Oh, what 
a loud call to diligence in the work of the Lord, and 
to be found ready when He comes, ' for at such an 
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh!' 
Some weeks ago he refused me liberty to preach on 
a week-day in his parish, though eagerly requested 

(103) 7 



STR AT HBOGIE IN 1817. 



by his people. The people met with me in a neigh- 
bouring parish where liberty was obtained for me to 
preach, and I believe two or three at least were 
brought under serious impressions. The Lord will 
have his own in spite of. all who oppose him; and 
when one door is shut he can open another." " I 
had a letter this day," he adds, " from a friend at 
Grantown, acquainting me that the minister of Aber- 
nethy had refused me liberty to preach in his parish, 
though earnestly requested by many of his people. 
If the Lord had anything to do by me there at 
present, he would have opened the way. Other 
places, however, are accessible. Blessed be his name ! 
And where he sets an open door before me, it is my 
duty to improve the opportunity. I pity those that 
shut the door, and pray that the Lord may lead them 
to a better mind." 

On his journeys to Aberdeen he passed repeatedly 
through the district of Strathbogie, which was then 
a spiritual waste. A very few Dissenters had broken 
ground in some spots of this dreary desert, but their 
influence was not extensive ; and all the resources of 
the Established Church were employed to counteract 
their efforts. The men who " lifted " the stipends 
in the parishes of that district did little else besides, 
except spending them. To read on Sabbath the 
pithless paragraphs of a musty sermon which they 
had at first either begged, borrowed, or stolen, to a 
handful of sleepers, was almost all the stipend-earning 



STKATHBOGIE IN 1817. 



99 



work they did. The only zeal they ever exhibited 
was when they were disturbed by the intrusion of 
evangelism or dissent into their preserves. The one 
doctrine of their creed seemed to be that there was 
no occasion to believe anything ; and judging by 
their lives, the only maxim in their code of morals 
was, that a minister may do what he likes if he 
continues in safe possession of his living. It is 
almost impossible to exaggerate in describing the 
ungodliness of some of these men. And yet they 
were called ministers of Christ, and they ate the bread 
of that office without fear or shame ! 

How many portions of our beloved land were 
blighted by the graceless ministry of such men as 
these ! How wonderful it is, that the Church which 
acknowledged them, should have survived such pro- 
vocation of God's wrath, and risen again into revived 
zeal for God, after so utter a decline of fervour and 
of faithfulness as marked her condition at the be- 
ginning of this century ! Is it because of the more 
public connection with his glory which Established 
Churches have, that the Lord has sometimes, for his 
name's sake, raised these from depths, where other 
Churches, which have fallen into them, have been- 
left to die ? 

With his zeal for the salvation of sinners, his 
constant readiness to preach, and the manifold proofs 
he had received that the blessing of the Lord was 
descending on his labours, we cannot wonder though 



100 



AT THE BAR OF THE ASSEMBLY. 



Mr. Macdonald could not always keep silence while 
passing through Strathbogie. In 1817 he preached 
in a Dissenting chapel within the bounds of that 
presbytery. The " dumb dogs " who kept the parish 
gates, though they could not " bark/' were resolved 
to show that they at least could bite. The presbytery 
in hot haste took up the conduct of " the vagrant 
preacher " from Ross-shire, and by a reference sent 
up a complaint against him to the Assembly. In 
the granite city, there lived and lectured a certain 
Professor who was now becoming ambitious of a 
leader's place in the Church, and who, always ready 
to lay out all his strength in a tilt against evangelism, 
headed on this occasion the crusade against " the wild 
man " of the north. He went to the Assembly with 
a censure in his pocket. Discovering, on consulting 
with cooler heads, that there was no case against 
" the vagrant preacher," the consideration of the mat- 
ter was put off to the last Saturday of the Assembly, 
that with the scantier attendance there might be the 
better chance of smuggling through the censure which 
the Assembly were to be asked to issue. 

The following account of the Assembly's proceed- 
ings in this case was given in The Christian In- 
structor of 1819 : — 

" The Assembly then considered a reference from 
the Presbyteries of Strathbogie and Aberlour, referring 
to the Assembly the conduct of Mr. John Macdonald, 
minister of Urquhart, in preaching in other parishes 



THE ASSEMBLY'S JUDGMENT. 



101 



than his own, within the bounds of the above pres- 
byteries. Mr. Cruickshanks, a member of the pres- 
bytery of Strathbogie, was heard in support of the 
reference, and Mr. Macdonald in explanation. After 
long reasoning, a motion w T as made and seconded, 
that, ' Having considered the references, the Assembly 
declare, as it is hereby declared, that the performance 
of divine service, or any part of public worship or 
service, by members of this Church in meeting-houses 
of dissenters, is irregular and unconstitutional, and 
ought on no occasion to take place, except in cases 
in which, from the peculiar circumstances of a parish, 
its minister may find it occasionally necessary for 
conducting the ordinary religious instruction of his 
people ; and the Assembly further declare, that the 
conduct of any minister of the Church, who exercises 
his pastoral functions in a vagrant manner, preaching, 
during his journeys from place to place, in the open 
air, in other parishes than his own, or officiating in 
any meeting for religious exercises without the special 
invitation of the minister within whose parish it 
shah be held, and by whom such meetings shall be 
called, is disorderly and unbecoming the character of 
a member of this Church, and calculated to weaken 
the hands of the minister of the parish, and to injure 
the interests of sound religion ; and the Assembly 
enjoin presbyteries to take order, that no countenance 
be given by ministers within their bounds to such 
occasional meetings proposed to be held for divine 



102 



THE ASSEMBLY'S PROCEEDINGS. 



service, or other pious purposes, as may, under the 
pretext of promoting religion, injure its interests, and 
so disturb the peace and order of the Church ; and 
in case of such meetings taking place, the presbyteries, 
within whose bounds they are held, are enjoined to 
report the same to the meeting of the General 
Assembly ensuing/ Another motion was made and 
seconded, ' That the Assembly, having considered the 
references, find it unnecessary to emit any declaration 
relative to the subject thereof, the existing laws of 
the Church being sufficient to prevent the irregularity 
complained of, and recommend to the ministers of 
this Church to exercise their usual vigilance in giving 
due effect to these laws/ 

" A vote was taken on these motions, when the 
first was carried by a considerable majority, and 
therefore the General Assembly declare and enjoin in 
terms of the first motion. From which judgment 
the following members dissented, for reasons to be 
given in in due form, and took instruments in the 
clerk's hands, viz. : Mr. James Thomson, Dr. Singers, 
Mr. John Hunter, Mr. John Ramsay, Thomas H. 
Millar, Esq., Dr. Lorimer, Mr. John Robertson, Mr. 
John Shaw, Mr. John Paul, Mr. Walter Tait, Mr. 
John Macdonald of Urquhart, Mr. John Cameron, 
William Inglis, Esq., William Maclean, Esq." 

The following remarks on the conduct of the 
Assembly are from the mighty pen of Dr. Andrew 
Thomson : — 



REMARKS BY DR. THOMSON. 



103 



" We are aware, indeed, that the references sub- 
mitted to the judgment of the Assembly expressly 
denounced Mr. Macdonald as a delinquent. But 
when the matter came to be canvassed, his delinquency 
was so far from being established, that it was dis- 
proved ; and though the leading members of the 
court would willingly have put him into the sentence, 
and though the original draught of it, as it issued 
from the pocket of Dr. Mearns, did actually reflect 
upon him nominatim, yet this purpose was fallen 
from; such an impression of Mr. Macdonald's inno- 
cence prevailed, that the most violent of his opponents 
acknowledged it; and the deliverance of Assembly 
stands upon the record, and descends to posterity, 
without involving or touching his character in the 
slightest degree. For our part, we regard it with 
unqualified aversion and disdain, however much we 
respect the court from which it emanated, as the 
supreme judicature of the Church. And we shall 
shortly state the grounds on which we think ourselves 
necessitated to speak of it in terms of such severity. 
In point of form it must be called a decision of the 
General Assembly; but we think it right to give 
some explanation of the fact, so that it may be seen 
how far the Assembly, in fair and liberal interpreta- 
tion, is responsible for the measure. Two references 
(one from the Presbytery of Strathbogie, and another 
one from the Presbytery of Aberlour) concerning 
alleged misconduct on the par>t of a particular 



104 



DR. M EARNS IN THE ASSEMBLY. 



individual, consisting in vagrant preaching, were 
transmitted to the Assembly. They were not taken 
into consideration until the Saturday .before the 
court rose, on which day, it is well known, a great 
proportion of the members have left town, and any 
mischievous proposal has a better chance of being 
carried through. We do not positively affirm that 
the delay was intentional; but our suspicion that it 
was so is too strong and too well grounded to be 
removed by any declaration to the contrary. How- 
ever that may have been, it is certain that the case 
was not taken up till the Saturday ; that few members, 
comparatively speaking, were present; and that it 
was determined, not only without unanimity, but 
after a vigorous though ineffectual opposition. We 
shall soon see its merits; but, in the meantime, it is 
proper to bear these things in mind, and to recollect, 
further, that the judgment finally pronounced was 
the production of Dr. Mearns of Aberdeen, who 
seemed anxious to try his skill in the work of 
legislation, and whom his friends, we suppose, did 
not like to disappoint or discourage in his first 
attempt. First attempts are generally awkward; 
and so fares it with this production of the learned 
doctor's ; for a more awkward, clumsy, stupid thing 
we never saw in the shape of an ecclesiastical decision. 
It is a sort of monster, springing from the union of 
mad zeal and ignorant assurance. 

"Really its reverend author should not set up as a 



MR. MACDONALD IS NOT CENSURED. 105 

leader in the General Assembly — Ne sutor ultra 
crepidam. And really the General Assembly would 
consult its own dignity, and the good of the Church, 
by expunging from its record what he has already, 
through some strange oversight, got inserted in it, in 
the shape of a declaration; and, moreover, by sub- 
stituting in its place a resolve, that no proposition 
of his in future shall be allowed the benefit of a 
discussion, till it has lain twelve months on the table. 

" The references which gave rise to the decision 
accused Mr. Macdonald of Urquhart of irregular 
practices in the function of preaching. It was his 
conduct which these documents stated to be the 
ground of the application. It was his conduct which 
every one of the speakers, in supporting them, made 
the subject of their animadversion. And it was his 
conduct which the motion, in its original form, as 
concocted (shall we say?) at Aberdeen, was intended 
to censure and condemn. But every person who had 
the misery to be present when the matter was 
reasoned, must recollect how Mr. Macdonald's conduct 
was, in the course of the debate, so completely 
vindicated, that not even the most fierce and un- 
reasonable of his opponents could persist in their 
primary determination to find him guilty. Every 
one seemed to vie with another in declaring that he 
was not only a good man, and a useful minister in 
genera], but quite innocent and blameless in the 
particular examples brought forward to his prejudice. 



106 



SIN WINKED AT— ZEAL CONDEMNED. 



And accordingly, the sentence found no fault with 
him — did not even mention his name — no, nor made 
the remotest allusion to anything he was alleged to 
have done. How ridiculous, then, is the sentence ! 

"The reference and discussion are all about Mr. 
Macdonald — the sentence in which they issue keeps 
as clear of that gentleman and his doings as if he 
had never existed. And thus it seems to be a maxim 
in Dr. Mearns judicature or legislative system, that 
a court should give judgment on anything but the 
question that has been regularly brought before it ! 

"We cannot conclude our remarks on the Assembly's 
declaration without noticing the consistency of those 
by whom it w^as moved and carried. It was but a 
few days before, that, in the same court they sounded 
the praise and contributed to the acquittal of a 
clergyman who had neglected the duty of preaching 
to his people for seven months ; whose church, by 
his own letters and confessions, was not in such bad 
repair that he might not have officiated in it without 
danger to himself or his people; who had the courage 
to avow at the bar of the Assembly, that his chief 
object in not preaching for such a long period was, 
if possible, to shame the heritors out of their alleged 
misconduct, and to compel them to give him a new 
church without delay, and thus acknowledged that 
his design was to take vengeance on the offending 
heritors, by withholding the word of life from his 
unoffending parishioners ! We say nothing harsh of 



CHANGE OF DAYS. 



107 



the individual who is here alluded to, for he is not 
before us, and not under our jurisdiction. But we 
state the fact, and we leave it to our readers to judge 
of the view^s and principles of those who could at 
once exculpate a minister for a confessed neglect of 
his pulpit duties for seven months, and prohibit all 
other ministers from preaching ' during their journeys 
from place to place in the open air, in other parishes 
than their own.' If such principles and views shall 
become general, (heaven forbid it !) then farewell to 
the honour, and prosperity, and reputation of the 
Church of Scotland." 

The next time Strathbogie sought notoriety in the 
annals of the Assembly the tables were turned. In 
1817 the presbytery tried to shut the mouth of an 
evangelist who pitied their famished flocks, and 
sought to feed them with the bread of life. In 1841 
the majority of that presbytery were deposed by the 
Assembty, though, not having received their right 
tor preach from Christ or from his Church, they 
wrought on as Caesar's slaves, as they had done 
before ; while "the Apostle of the North" expatiated 
over their parishes as the ambassador of the King of 
Zion, proclaiming the glorious gospel without the 
fear of Church censure, and in contempt of the Court 
of Session's interdict. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ST. KILDA — VISITED BY MR. MACDOXALD IN 1822 — EXTRACTS FROM 
HIS JOURXAL. 

HE island of St. Kilda rises remote, wild, 
and barren out of the waste of waters in 
the western sea. It presents a high 
rampart of rugged rocks to the billows of the ocean 
on all its sides, broken only by two chasms through 
which alone, for all wingless animals, access to the 
land is possible. On the east side, the ground slopes 
towards one of these openings, and in front of it, 
near the shore, are clustered together the rude huts 
of the inhabitants. Behind the hamlet the ground 
rises gradually towards the north-west, passing on 
the south side into the higher slopes of Ruaveil, and 
on the north rising into the rugged steeps of Congar, 
while on the north-east stands the Orwall hill, like a 
stern sentry keeping watch. In the valley between 
Orwall and Congar is the land which the people till, 
and from the produce of which they obtain their scanty 
supply of bread. The Fulmar and the Solan geese, 
which in myriads nestle in the rocky ramparts of 
the island, bring to the people their only source of 




ST. KILDA. 



109 



income. The clanger attending their mode of killing 
these birds to procure their fat and feathers, they 
brave most fearlessly. The impulsive Celt likes 
the excitement of an occasional risk, rather than the 
monotony of safe and continuous employment. 
Without the vibration of a nerve, and speaking with a 
voice that knows no tremor, the islander, with a rude 
rope around his waist, held by friendly hands that 
shake not as they grasp it, goes over the edge of a 
precipice three hundred feet in height, and hanging 
over the sharp rocks around which, far below, the 
raging sea is lashed into foam — his foot now touch- 
ing a narrow ledge, and then his whole weight 
straining the strand by which he is suspended — 
strikes with his bludgeon nest after nest as he 
reaches it; loads his shoulders with the slain, and 
is only drawn to the summit when he can carry 
no more. 

In 1822 the population of the island was 108. 
According to their own traditions, their first sires 
came from the nearest islands on the east. Tliek* 
names and their language accord with this account 
of their origin. Their huts are built of stone, and 
roofed with turf and straw; and filthy, unfurnished, 
and comfortless homes thej^ are. Their dress is made 
of the undyed wool of their own gray tiny sheep, 
spun and woven by themselves. There was a 
succession of Presbyterian ministers in the island 
since the Revolution. The character of these can 



110 



MR. MACDONALD VISITS ST. KILDA. 



now only be judged by the spiritual condition of the 
people when they were visited in 1822. a It grieves 
me to say," writes Dr. Macdonald, " and I took pains 
to ascertain the' truth, that, among the whole body, 
I did not find a single individual who could be truly 
called a decidedly religious person; that is, one who 
has felt the influence of the truth on his soul, and 
who exhibits that influence in his life and conversa- 
tion They seem to have a sense on their minds of 

a Supreme Being, who superintends and governs all 
things; and they admit also that they are sinners, 
and merit His displeasure. But they appear to have 
no correct views as to the method, either of obtaining 
His favour, or of being qualified for enjoying Him. 
When I proposed to them the question of the 
Philippian jailor (Acts xvi. 30), and asked what 
answer they would give to it, an old man replied, 
c We shall be saved if we repent and forsake our sins, 
and turn to God.' ' Yes,' says a middle-aged woman, 
' and with a true heart too.' ' Ay/ rejoins a third, 
1 and with prayer.' ' And,' acids a fourth, ' it must 
be the prayer of the heart.' ' And we must be 
diligent too/ says a fifth, ' in keeping the command- 
ments/ After each had thus contributed his mite, 
and having no doubt that among them a decent 
creed had been made out, they all looked and listened 
for my approbation." 

Mr. Macdonald visited St. Kilda in 1822 at the 
request of " The Society for Propagating Christian 



dr. Campbell's letter. 



Ill 



Knowledge/' conveyed to him in the following terms 
by the Rev. Dr. Campbell of Edinburgh : — 

" The object of this communication is to call your 
attention to the mission of St. Kilda; certainly a 
very interesting object, and a case which presents 
strong claims on the attention of the friends of reli- 
gion in the Highlands. Despairing, from the short- 
ness of the time, to be able to send a minister to the 
island before August, I now state that I am 
authorized by the directors to make a proposal to 
you, which, from your well-known principles, and 
feelings of love to our common Lord, and to the 
souls of men, and from your habits .of itinerating, I 
should incline to think would not fail to be agree- 
able to you. It is, that you yourself shall take a trip 
to St. Kilda along with the tacksman, in the month of 
August. The necessities of the islanders are urgent 
in the extreme. And I should think that the cry of 
their distress must be heard as loud in the ear of a 
zealous evangelical minister, as that of the men of 
Macedonia by Paul, ' Come over and help us/ I 
leave it to your own heart to make up an argument 
on the case, which I doubt not you will feel as irre- 
sistible. You go at the expense of the Society. The 
time is short; and if no minister goes in August the 
poor St. Kildaites must be destitute of spiritual in- 
struction for another year." 

This was a call which he had no strength to resist. 
He had long thought of and pitied the poor islanders 



112 



EN ROUTE TO ST. KILDA. 



of St. Kilda, and often had he prayed for them; and 
now, when invited to visit them, he at once consented 
to go. Dr. Campbell's letter was dated July 8th, 
and on the 26th of August Mr. Macdonald started 
for St. Kilda. Three days were spent on the way to 
Skye, where he was detained till the 4th of Septem- 
ber. After a tedious and disagreeable passage he 
reached Boudle in Harris on the 7th of September, 
and there he was compelled to remain for a week. 
He occupied the time thus lost to St. Kilda in 
preaching to the people of Harris. a In a strange 
land," he writes, " and among a people hitherto un- 
known to me, the Sabbath was comfortably spent, 
and if its exercises are blessed to a single soul, my 
detention here is not to be regretted." 

But his heart was longing to reach St. Kilda. 
" In the evening," he writes, " the sky being clear, 
we had, from the top of an eminence in this island, 
a peep of St. Kilda, the lofty hills of which resembled 
in colour the azure of the sky. Immediately my 
heart seemed to be transported thither, and I said to 
myself, ' Oh, that I had the wings of a dove ! 

Having called on the minister of Harris, he re- 
ceived him kindly, and expressed his approval of the 
proposed visit to St. Kilda, " an island/' he said, 
" which, though in my parish, I have never seen." 

Thus far from Sk} r e he was accompanied by Mr. 
Shaw, the minister of Bracadale. But w T hen step- 
ping into the boat that was to carry him from Harris, 



POEM ON ST. KILDA. 



113 



Mr. Shaw bade him farewell, his courage having 
failed before the dangers of the voyage. " I felt 
now," Mr. Macdonald writes, " that I was left alone, 
but wished to be able to say with the adorable Head, 
' 1 am "not alone, for the Father is with me/ These 
words occurred to my mind and comforted me." 

At sea between Harris and St. Kilda he composed 
some stanzas in Gaelic, in which he thus expressed 
his feelings toward the poor islanders : — 

" Thinking of the island, so remote and lonely, 
care and sorrow awoke w T ithin me, as I remembered 
the danger of the people. They are as sheep without 
a shepherd to lead and pasture them; or as a rudder- 
less ship, tossed on the rough billows of the ocean; 
who can tell what her course may be, or if she may 
not be dashed on the rocks ? Most dismal is their 
case ! To endless torment they are exposed, without 
any to help them or to show them the way to Christ. 
Are we guiltless if these people perish before us, and 
we preach not to them the gospel of peace which 
shows the only way of life ? Hard as flint is the 
heart that melts not in pity over their sad case. Oh, 
for the wings of a dove to carry me to them at once ! 
Hunger and hardship would I bear, and the dangers 
of sea and storm would I brave, that I might see 
the people, and preach to them the gospel of peace." 

Such were his feelings as he thought of the de- 
solate islanders of St. Kilda; and if the stanzas in 
which he rhymed the utterance of them contain no 

(103) g 



114 



ST. KILDA. 



gems of poesy, they are bright with sparks of burn- 
ing zeal from a true evangelist's heart. 

He thus describes his feelings on coming within 
sight of the island : — " At last I caught sight of the 
island, a sight I had longed to see, and my heart 
swelled with gladness as I looked. But who could 
look on that island, standing erect out of the sea, 
with its rugged, craggy rocks, and its waste, unlovely 
mountains, its rough, green shore, the rude, proud 
billows of the sea indenting all its sides as they dash 
against it with furious onsets, while it stands unyield- 
ing to the surf that is raging all around it, though 
its brow is bare and hoary with the waste and the 
spray of the waves ; who could see it thus, and un- 
bidden venture to approach it ? Truly, if I had not 
a call from the Lord, I would not set foot on its 
shore." 

The following extracts from his journal describe 
the reception given to him by the people, his work 
among them, and the apparent results of his visit. 
How comprehensive and suitable was the course of 
sermons which he preached ! With what wisdom, 
faithfulness, fervour, and diligence he ministered to 
the poor islanders during his sojourn among them ! 
And what sobriety and modesty characterize his own 
description of his labours ! 

"Monday, Sept. 16. — Yesterday morning, at half- 
past four, we loosed from Ainsay. The wind due 
south, and a moderate breeze. About six, we passed 



" IN PERILS IN THE SEA." 



115 



the island of Pabbay, and leaving all the lands of 
Long Island behind us, were now fairly in the 
Atlantic. We had scarcely, however, proceeded a 
third of the way, when an accident befell us, which, 
at the time, threatened to prevent our getting further. 
The wind by this time blew pretty fresh, and became 
rather squally, when our mast gave way within a 
few feet of the top, and down came sail and all about 
our ears. For a minute, master as well as men were 
panic-struck, but recovering themselves a little, they 
found that there was left entire of the mast w r hat 
was sufficient to carry all the canvas which our little 
bark could bear at the time. Accordingly, adjusting 
matters as well as they could, we proceeded, our fine 
little vessel swiftly mounting the billows, which now 
ran mountains high; and, by two o'clock in the 
afternoon, we reached the shore, or rather the lofty 
rocks, of St. Kilda. 

" Thus the Lord affords us constant reasons for 
gratefully recognising his protecting care and un- 
merited kindness. ' Oh, that men would praise hirn 
for his goodness ! ' I had certainly much cause to 
acknowledge his mercies to us at this time, for had 
the accident been such as not to admit of our getting 
forward, (which, had the mast broken a few feet 
lower than it did, would have been the case), neither 
could we have made our way back, but must, in 
that event, have been at the mercy of the elements, 
to be carried whithersoever wind and sea might drive 



116 



HE REACHES ST. KILDA. 



us, and at that time for anything we knew, into the 
Northern Ocean. Finding, when we reached St. 
Kilda, that, owing to the boisterous state of the 
wind, and its blowing on shore, we could not effect 
a landing on the eastern coast, which is the only 
landing-place even for a boat on the whole island, we 
veered about to the leeward on the north-west side 
of the island, and in a little loch or arm of the sea, 
got the boat under shelter, and leaving it in charge 
of the crew till the weather would admit of bringing 
it round, the master and I stepped ashore, having 
nearly two miles to walk before reaching the village, 
which is situate on the eastern bay. The feelings 
of my mind, however, on this occasion, were beyond 
description. I had no sooner got my foot on St. 
Kilda ground than I trust I was enabled to praise 
the Lord for His great goodness in preserving me on 
the mighty waters, and bringing me to my much 
wished for destination; and also to pray that, having 
so far made my journey prosperous, he would crown 
with much success the object of my mission. 

" When descending the brow of the hill above the 
village, we observed some person standing without, 
and, on a sudden, in consequence as we afterwards 
learned of his sounding the alarm, all the souls in the 
village appeared at once, at first flying in different 
directions, until they discovered from what quarter 
the strangers were coming, when they made toward 
us in a body — shook hands with their tacksman, and 



FIRST SERMON IN ST. KILDA. 



117 



welcomed him to the place. After these salutations 
were over, he introduced me to them as a minister 
who had come to visit them, and was sent by the 
Society. Upon this, they immediately shook hands 
with me as if we had been many years acquainted, 
and, ' God bless the Society which sent him, and God 
bless him for coming,' was the general exclamation. 
Mr. M'Lellan and I then entered the house where 
the late missionary resided, and which is at present 
occupied by a Gaelic teacher lately sent to the island. 
It consists of a pretty large room with two concealed 
beds and a kitchen, and is to be our accommodation 
while we remain in the island. 

"After taking some refreshment, it being now four 
o'clock, I intimated my intention of preaching, and 
that worship should commence about six. Word 
soon spread — for the houses being all built in a clus- 
ter, a cry, which served as a church-bell, was heard 
over the whole town ; and at six we all met in the 
school-house, which is also the only barn in the place, 
and a sort of common property. It was sufficient to 
accommodate the inhabitants, who, I believe, were 
all present. — Preached to them, as an introductory 
discourse, on the angel's message to the shepherds 
(Luke ii. 10, 11), and was much pleased with the 
attention the people seemed to give to the Word. 
On retiring to rest, I felt peculiarly happy that I 
had now been enabled to commence my labours among 
this poor people, and prayed earnestly that the Lord 



118 



CONVERSATION WITH THE PEOFLE. 



would direct me both what and how to speak to 
them, and make his own Word, by the accompanying 
influence of the Spirit, effectual in their salvation. 
The scenes of the day also had their full impression 
on my mind at this time. 

" Eoderu die, Sept. 16. — This day, finding that 
owing to their work at the harvest and business with 
the tacksman, the people could not conveniently 
assemble before six or seven in the evening, I spent 
a good part of the day in visiting and conversing 
w T ith them at the shearing. The whole people, old 
and young, were out at once, and every family en- 
gaged in cutting down its little croft. Finding the 
people thus employed, I entered on some familiar 
conversation with them, in order to become a little 
acquainted with their views and habits, particularly 
in regard to religion. Found that they are fond of 
receiving and relating news. Endeavoured to gratify 
them as much as I could, and they in return enter- 
tained me with all the little tales of their island. I 
found that this gave me readier access to their minds, 
and enabled me with better effect to introduce, now 
and then, something about religion; for as yet we 
were not sufficiently prepared for entering fully on 
the subject. To such hints as were brought forward, 
they listened with attention and gave a ready assent, 
but said very little, which I imputed to a degree of 
bashfulness at this early stage of our acquaintance 
Walked about thus from one group to another in 



PREACHING THE LAW. 



119 



order to prevent jealousy, for where all are on a par, 
as is the case here, to make any distinction would 
appear invidious. 

"Preached to them in the evening from Rom. iii. 21, 
on the nature, the evil, and the extent of sin. They 
all seemed attentive, and some discovered signs of 
being affected, as if the view given them of the 
subject was different from what they had been 
accustomed to entertain, and had therefore occasioned 
them some alarm. After sermon, I explained to 
them more fully the object of my mission, and the 
views which the Society had in sending me ; adding, 
that I hoped, therefore, they would fall in with these 
views by giving a regular attendance, and showing 
a readiness to receive such instructions as might be 
given them. ' That we shall/ was the general reply. 
I told them further, that during my stay among 
them I meant to preach every day, besides catechizing 
and performing such other duties as might be ne- 
cessary; but that I would suit the hour of meeting 
to their convenience, which might in general be at 
six in the evening, or whenever the business of the 
day was over. To this they readily assented, and 
expressed their willingness to meet at any hour I 
chose. 

" Preached in the evening, from Rom. iii. 19, 
compared with Gal. iii. 10, on man's natural state 
under the law, as being under the curse. All 
listened with uncommon attention, and some were 



120 



ST. KILDA. 



evidently impressed. The Lord deepen such im- 
pressions ! 

" Wednesday, Sept. 18. — This day a number of 
the men with two boats (all the boats on the island), 
set off in quest of solan geese for the island of 
Boreray, about four miles directly to the north of 
this. The men being thus employed, I took a walk 
round the island, and after returning from this ex- 
cursion, I called at the fields where the women were 
employed in the absence of their husbands. Had 
some conversation with them on religious subjects, 
and was agreeably surprised at finding that they 
could repeat many of the questions of the Shorter 
Catechism, although they understood little of the 
meaning of them. Upon asking them if there was 
any person on the island distinguished for religion, 
they told me that there was none at present remark- 
able in that way; but that a few years ago, there 
lived among them a young man of singular piety, — 
that he scarcely did anything else than read his 
Bible and pray — that he lived quite above the world 
— that they were not worthy of him — and that there- 
fore the Lord took him to himself. He died, it would 
appear, at the age of nineteen or twenty. 

" Preached in the evening from Rom. iii. 20, on 
the impossibility of justification by the deeds of the 
law. I could perceive that some felt affected, and 
seemed as if they were disposed to ask, ' What must 
we do ? ' The Lord grant that this may be the case 



PREACHING THE GOSPEL. 



121 



in reality. It is difficult to storm the citadel of the 
sinner's heart — many a siege will it bear, yet 
" nothing is too hard for the Lord." 

"Thursday, Sept 19. — Took a trip this day in 
one of the boats belonging to the island, with my 
kind friend Mr. M'Lellan, to Boreray. We had 
scarcely approached its lofty rocks when the solan 
geese, which frequent this island and the Lee Rock 
in its immediate vicinity, flew about us in immense 
shoals like thick showers of snow, and seemed to 
darken the sky above our heads. The sight was 
truly astonishing, and far exceeded any anticipations 
I had formed. The old ones only fly about, and 
chiefly in quest of fish for their young. These, 
having got immensely fat, and their wings not being 
yet sufficiently grown to enable them to fly, recline 
on the rocks, exhibiting every sympton of ease and 
inaction. After taking a full view of the island and 
of its feathered inhabitants, returned home in the 
afternoon both gratified and astonished. 

" On our way home we attempted to catch some 
fish, but were unsuccessful. Report says that there 
is abundance of fish of various kinds about the island, 
and yet it is remarkable that the inhabitants never 
employ themselves in that way, and seem to have 
neither turn nor inclination for it. 

"Preached in the evening from Rom. iii. 21, on 
the righteousness of Christ as the ground of the 
sinner's justification. While speaking of the Re- 



122 



ST. KILDA. 



deemer's sufferings, some appeared to be deeply im- 
pressed, and there was something like a melting 
under the word. The cross, I see, is that chiefly 
which moves the sinner. 'They shall look upon 
Him whom they have pierced and mourn/ ' And 1/ 
says Christ, c if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me. 

" Friday, Sept. 20. — Walked about a part of this 
day, and conversed with such of the people as came 
in my way on their spiritual concerns. Feel that I 
ought to let slip no opportunity of doing so — that I 
am in a manner accountable for them in the day of 
the Lord — and that ere another messenger may visit 
them, there is every moral certainty that some of 
those I now see will be in eternity. How over- 
whelming the thought, if these perish for ever, and 
perish through my negligence ! Felt in consequence 
of this impression more than an ordinary concern for 
their salvation, and prayed to God for them. 

"I preached in the evening, from Rom. iii. 22, 
on the manner of becoming interested in the righte- 
ousness of Christ. During the discourse, some, both 
old and young, were affected even to tears ; and 
among others, an old man upwards of sixty years of 
age. We must leave results, however, with the 
Lord. 

"Saturday, Sept 21. — The day being uncom- 
monly mild, as indeed have been the last four or five 
days, I took a walk, in order to meditate in the view 



" ephraim's goodness. 



123 



of this evening and to-morrow's services, and passed 
the remaining part of the day in my room for the 
same purpose. The Gaelic teacher told me that he 
saw this morning one of the people engaged earnestly 
at prayer in the fields — 'A new thing/ says he, 1 in 
St. Kilda.' Preached in the evening from Rom. 
v. 1 , on the effects of justification. Felt rather dull 
and lifeless, and my hearers appeared to be so too. 
That ' a dead ministry makes a dead flock/ is an old 
remark, which I fear holds but too true. 

"Monday, Sept. 23. — Preached yesterday in the 
forenoon from John xvi. 7—15, on the work of 
the Spirit. Enjoyed much liberty during almost 
the whole service, and especially when pointing out 
how the Spirit ' guides to all truth, and glorifies 
Christ/ Many were affected, and at one time almost 
all were in tears ; among others, two young people 
about ten and twelve. But these impressions, I fear, 
are of short duration ; for after retiring, and during 
the interval, I observed the people standing here and 
there in small parties, and apparently discovering 
little concern about what they heard, except, as I 
have been told, that they were more silent than 
usual on these occasions. An individual indeed, 
here and there, seemed to separate himself from the 
rest, and lean on a garden wall, or some other object, 
as if musing on something. But with these excep- 
tions, a general decay of impression marked almost 
every countenance. Let none imagine that I here 



124 



ST. KILDA. 



plead for austerity or moroseness in religion. But 
there is a season in the life of every man, who, after 
having been thoughtless about salvation, becomes in 
earnest, and obtains mercy, when he must be sensible 
of danger and pierced with sorrow, and on such oc- 
casions, when the heart is full the countenance can- 
not easily conceal it. In some parts of the country 
I have seen such impressions as I have witnessed 
this day, drive men to their Bibles, and to a throne 
of grace. But these poor people cannot read, and 
how to pray they know not. The Lord pour out 
upon them the Spirit of grace and supplications ; then 
shall it be said of each of them, as of Saul of old, 
1 Behold, he prayeth ! ' The want of knowledge is a 
sad bar to conversion. In the parable of the sower, 
it is of those who heard and understood the word, 
that it is said, they c brought forth much fruit and 
without some degree of knowledge every impression 
is but as ' the morning cloud and the early dew 
which passeth away.' In order, therefore, to stimu- 
late them to the duty of prayer, I preached in the 
evening from John xvi. 24, 'Ask, and ye shall re- 
ceive;' when I took an opportunity of explaining 
the duty and pointing out the encouragements to 
prayer. I hope the word spoken had some effect. 
The Lord grant it may be lasting ! After ser- 
mon I baptized a child — the only one in the place 
needing that ordinance at present, two having died 
since the missionary left the island. The child's 



A DAY WITH THE LORD. 



125 



father, John Ferguson by name, is the only person 
in the place who can read, at least to any purpose. 
Found him, therefore, much better acquainted with 
the principles of Christianity than his neighbours. 
Preached in the evening from 2 Cor. v. ] 7, on 
being in Christ. The doctrine seemed new to the 
people ; and several of them were deeply impressed 
and in tears ; among others the old man formerly 
mentioned as above sixty. A circumstance, other- 
wise trivial, yet as it indicates the anxious wish of 
the people to hear the w 7 ord, and not to lose a single 
opportunity for that purpose which can be com- 
manded, deserves here to be mentioned. Some time 
before the hour of meeting for sermon, it became 
doubtful, owing to the boisterous state of the even- 
ing, whether the lamps would burn in the house, and 
therefore whether there could be sermon. This was 
no sooner rumoured abroad, than a number of active 
young men among them immediately set about re- 
pairing the roof, and in half an hour made it quite 
comfortable, adding, ' There shall be sermon indeed/ 
and ' we shall not lose a single night.' This eager- 
ness on their part both pleased and encouraged me 
much. 

" Wednesday, Sept. 25. — The people were much 
occupied to-day with Mr. M'Lellan in settling rents, 
&c. I therefore had little opportunity of conversing 
with them, and spent much of the day in retire- 
ment. Feel it pleasant to have access to God on all 



126 



ST. KILDA. 



occasions ; and lament much how little I avail my- 
self of the privilege. To enjoy Him would more 
than make up for all the inconveniences of solitude 
and seclusion. Preached in the evening from 2 Cor. 
v. 17, on the new creature; and hope I was enabled 
to be faithful and searching. Many were affected. 

Thursday, Sept 26. — This day Mr. M'Lellan hav- 
ing intimated to me that, wind and weather serving, 
he hoped to be able to leave the island to-morrow, I 
had my hands full. At an early hour, therefore, in 
the afternoon, I held a diet of examination, which 
was pretty numerously attended. Heard the people 
through most of the questions, which they repeat 
with tolerable accuracy, but are extremely deficient 
as to any knowledge of the meaning of them. They 
listened, however, with attention to such illustrations 
as were offered. Concluded with an address on the 
Shorter Catechism — the excellency and comprehen- 
siveness of its system, and the confirmation which 
every part of it receives from Scripture. I therefore 
recommended to them to meditate carefully on its 
contents ; and to ask the divine blessing to accom- 
pany it ; stating that this was the more necessary 
in their case in consequence of their not being able 
to read the Scriptures for themselves. It was easy 
to see the expression of acquiescence in every coun- 
tenance. At this and the preceding diet, all the 
families in the island were examined. 

" After the examination, I held, along with Mr. 



HIS WORK DRAWING TO A CLOSE. 



127 



M'Lellan and the Gaelic teacher, a meeting something 
like what might pass in St. Kilda for a justice of 
peace court, in order to settle little differences that 
might exist among the people ; and was pleased to 
find, much to their credit, none of any consequence, 
except one relating to marriage. 

" Preached in the evening from 2 Cor. v. 1 7, on the 
new creature — a continuation of last night's subject. 
Many during the whole time were much impressed; but 
towards the conclusion, when I hinted that this pro- 
bably might be the last opportunity I should have of 
addressing them, they all began to weep. The scene 
was truly affecting, and quite overcame me. I con- 
cluded as abruptly as I could, — for to continue was 
impossible, — by earnestly exhorting them to re- 
member what they had heard since we met, and this 
once to accept of Christ, and to labour to become new 
creatures, as that only preparation for that happy 
place where friends meet to part no more. 

H Thus I have concluded my labours among these 
people, after having preached to them thirteen times, 
besides other services, and repeated conversations with 
them on the momentous concerns of eternity. What 
the result is, He alone knows who has said, 1 My word 
shall not return to me void but I can with truth 
say, that I enjoyed much comfort in the work, and 
that 1 hope my poor ' labours shall not be in vain 
in the Lord.' It becomes me to speak with modesty 
and caution as to any real effect produced. Yet a 



128 



ST. KILDA. 



few, at least five or six, appear to be under serious 
impressions ; while the general body seem to feel 
more than an ordinary concern about their eternal 
interests ; and, I would fain hope, a greater degree 
of prepossession in favour of the gospel, than has 
hitherto appeared among them. May the Lord 
'count when he writeth up the people, that this and 
that man were born there.' It affects my heart not 
a little, in the prospect of leaving them, that I shall 
have no opportunity for a long while to hear of them, 
or how they come on, such is the infrequency of 
communication with the island. But it is consoling 
to think that they are under His care f who feeds 
his flock like a shepherd, and who gathers the lambs 
with his arms, and carries them in his bosom.' And 
I reckon it no small privilege to the people, in exist- 
ing circumstances, that the Gaelic teacher among 
them is a person who is able to instruct and direct 
them in the ways of the Lord, and who discovers 
every disposition on his part to follow up the in- 
structions they have received. 

"Friday, Sept. 27. — This morning, the weather 
being moderate, and the wind west and south-west, 
quite in our favour, we hastened to get the boat 
launched, and everything on board, in order to our 
departure. When all was got ready, about nine 
o'clock, and we had been taking leave of the in- 
habitants, all of them in a body (children not ex- 
cepted), followed us to the shore, and amidst cries 



PARTING AND PRAISE. 



129 



and teats, in which my landlord and I were obliged 
to share, we shook hands with them and bade them 
a final adieu ! 

( - The scene it is impossible for me to describe, but 
it reminded me of Acts xx. 38, 'Sorrowing most of 
all — that they should see his face no more.' And 
they literally expressed themselves so. After we 
had got under weigh, they ascended the brow of a 
steep hill, and sat following us with their eye, till 
our little bark, at the distance of fifteen or twenty 
miles, became no more visible." 

His journal thus concludes, "All praise to the 
Lord who has thus brought me back in safety; who 
protected me during the whole of my journeyings ; 
preserved me in health, though often exposed on sea 
and land to the injuries of the weather and change 
of situation ; enabled me comfortably, and I trust 
not without some success, to accomplish the object of 
my mission in visiting St. Kilda, and labouring 
among the poor inhabitants for nearly a fortnight ; 
opened for me doors of usefulness in many other 
places, which but for this jaunt I might never have 
visited ; gave me also, I hope, a heart in some 
measure to delight in his work, and to occupy such 
opportunities for addressing immortal souls as came 
in my way, so as during an absence of nearly eight 
weeks, not to be a single day without being thus 
more or less employed ; and, finally, permitted me 
again to find my family and flock in comfort, after 

(103) g 



130 



ST. KILDA. 



the mutual anxiety which the total want of com- 
munication between us had for so long a period oc- 
casioned us. These are circumstances which, while 
the} r ought to humble me in the dust, call aloud for 
thanksgiving and praise to Him who has done all 
things for me. Oh, may He grant that my spared 
life may be devoted more than ever to His glory." 



CHAPTER VIII. 




DECLINES A CALL FROM EDINBURGH — PREACHES IN LONDON — 
REVISITS ST. KILDA. 

FEW weeks after his return from St. Kilda 
be went to Edinburgh to dispense tbe 
sacrament of tbe Supper in tbe Gaelic 
chapel, which was then again vacant. He 
was importuned, at that time, to accept a call from 
bis former congregation, the managers offering to 
give him a stipend of £400. In reference to this 
proposal he writes to Mrs. Macdonald, in a letter 
dated Nov. 19, 1822 : "I was offered £400 a year, 
if I would come back to the Gaelic chapel ; but 
though tbe translation might be desirable for the 
sake of a rising family, how could I part with dear 
Urquhart ?" 

In the beginning of the following year, he received 
a letter from the Secretary of the London Missionary 
Society asking him, in name of tbe Directors, to 
preach one of the anniversary sermons in behalf of 
the Society at their meeting in May. He had never 
been in the great metropolis before, and would find 
himself alone among strangers if he went ; be had 



132 



CALLED TO PREACH IN LONDON. 



not then acquired the facility and accuracy as an 
English speaker to which he afterwards attained ; he 
feared that unfounded expectations might be cherished 
by those who already spoke and wrote of him as the 
great Evangelist of the North ; and with his modest 
estimate of his own attainments, he could not but 
shrink from agreeing to the request of the Society. 
But, years before, he had resolved never to decline 
an invitation to preach if he could possibly accept 
of it, and had made it for a long time a special sub- 
ject of prayer, that the Lord would give him readiness 
to preach, without prejudice to the truth, on every 
occasion, however sudden the call, and however for- 
midable the audience. He had been encouraged also 
to hope, that the Lord would answer his cry ; and 
this was an occasion to test the firmness of his reso- 
lution, and the steadfastness of his faith. He yielded 
not to his fears. The following letter is his reply to 
the invitation of the Society : — 

" Urquhart Manse, bt Dingwall, 
V2th March, 1823. 

(< Rev. Dear Sir, — I was duly favoured witli 
yours of the 25th ultimo, requesting me, in name of 
the Directors of the London Missionary Society, to 
preach one of the Anniversary Sermons before them 
in May, in behalf of the said Society. After hesi- 
tating for some days, on grounds a detail of which 
is unnecessary, I beg leave to inform you, that I 
have come to the conclusion of complying with the 



IMPRESSIONS OF LONDOX. 



133 



request of the Directors. I might plead my insuffi- 
ciency in many respects for this important service; 
but I hope never to shrink from a duty, however 
arduous, while I read in the Sacred Record, i Our 
sufficiency is of God/ 

" May He plead the cause which is his own. and 
strengthen His servants, and unworthy me, on that 
occasion to discharge our duty as those who must 
give account ! 

" Wishing for you and the Directors much of the 
Divine Presence in the very important and useful 
labours in which you are engaged, I remain, Rev, 
Dear Sir, faithfully and respectfully yours, 

" John Macdonald." 

The journey to London, not so easy then as 
now, was safely accomplished \ and he finds himself 
for the first time amidst the Babel bustle, and the 
religious dissipation of a London May. He at- 
tended regularly the great religious meetings, and 
thus conveys to Mrs. Macdonald his impressions of 
them : — 

" Since writing to you last, I have been very much 
occupied, though not in my usual way. Both on 
Sabbath and on week-days I have been a regular, 
and I have the vanity to add, a most attentive 
hearer. I have not yet attempted to open my 
northern mouth in the great and polished metropolis. 
On Sabbath, I heard a plain, sound, and somewhat 



134 



LONDON. 



pious discourse from the Bishop of Gloucester, in St. 
Martin's Church. In the afternoon I heard in Mr. 
Daniel Wilsons chapel, but was disappointed at not 
hearing himself, although the discourse I heard (from 
a Mr. Webster), was a pretty good one. I still, 
however, hope to hear this man of renown before I 
leave London. On Tuesday, I attended the meeting 
of the Church Missionary Society, which was very 
interesting. On Wednesday, at a meeting of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, I seemed to 
myself, for a time, to have been transported to the 
very suburbs of heaven. The scene was truly elec- 
trifying. To have seen and heard Wilberforce, 
Vansittart, Teignmouth, Gambier, and others, plead 
so warmly and ably the cause of the Bible, and 
pi vino- the sanction of their rank and talent to its 
spread in the world, would have given joy to any 
heart not shut up against every benevolent, not to 
say religious, feeling. This day I have just returned 
from the meeting of the Hibernian Society. The 
Duke of Gloucester was in the chair. The narrative 
read, and the speeches delivered, all tended to im- 
press the audience with a deeper interest in long 
neglected Ireland. I have heard sermons every day 
of this week preached on behalf of these and other 
institutions/' 

When he wrote the letter from which the pre- 
ceding extract is taken, he had not delivered his own 
sermon. In reference to the prospect of doing so he 



LONDON EXrEFJEiXCES. 



135 



writes : " My own share of the public labour is soon 
to come on. If this reaches you in time, think of 
me, on Thursday evening in Tottenham Court Road 
Chapel, and pray that I may be strengthened with 
strength from on high ; and that the Redeemer may 
bring glory to himself through my poor labours. 
This is all I desire ; and neither fame, nor human 
applause." 

On the day after he preached, he writes : " Last 
evening, through the kindness of the Lord, I dis- 
charged the leading duty for which I came to 
London. Though surrounded by upwards of three 
thousand strangers, a tithe of whom were clergymen, 
I have reason to praise the Lord, that I was enabled 
for an hour and a half to speak with considerable 
ease and freedom. What effects ensued the Lord 
only knows ; but I trust He was present, nay, I verily 
believe it. This I ascribe to the prayers of Christians 
in London and in the north. The subject was the 
outpouring of the Spirit; the text, Acts ii. 17, 18. 
I delivered the sermon without my notes, and felt 
more at ease on that account." 

As to the sermons preached by his colleagues he 
writes: "They were, upon the whole, able. In some 
of them there was a want of unction ; but this is 
a quality which neither talent nor literature can 
supply." " I have now met," he adds, " and mingled 
with many Christians in London. This is indeed a 
season of religious dissipation. I enjoy it as yet, 



LONDON. 



but I would soon tire of it This evening I sat 
down at the Lord's table, in Orange Street Chapel, 
with many clergymen and others. The scene was 
pleasing and solemn ; and I hope the service has 
done me good. Mr. Rowland Hill presided. He 
seems, indeed, to be bearing fruit in his old age. 
'They have almost expelled me,' he said, 'from the 
communion of the Church ; but they cannot expel 
me from the communion of the Lord's dear people — 
no, neither here, nor hereafter.' " 

Having once preached, calls for his services began 
to multiply till, during the short time he was able 
to remain in London thereafter, he was occupied in 
his old congenial work of busy preaching. " Next 
Sabbath,'' he writes, " I am engaged to preach in 
Swallow Street Chapel in the forenoon, and in Mr. 
Piatt's in the evening. I have more calls to preach 
than I can possibly accept." 

But his thoughts turn homewards ; the summer 
work in the north has begun, and the communion in 
Urquhart is approaching. In his last letter from 
London he gives instructions to Mrs. Macdonald as 
to the supplies required for the work of " the sacra- 
ment week " in Urquhart. " You will see/' he writes, 
" the following brethren at Resolis ; and if not, write 
to them, mentioning their diets. Mr. Fraser, Kirk- 
hill, English on Saturday, and one service at the 
tent on Monday. Mr. John Kennedy, one sermon 
on the Fast-day either Gaelic or English, as I shall 



ST. K I LP A REVISITED. 



137 



determine when I return, and the whole service of 
Saturday in Gaelic, and a share of table services on 
Sabbath. M)\ Sage: a sermon in Gaelic on the 
Fast-day, and an English sermon on Sabbath 
evening, with table services. Mr. Mackintosh 
[now Dr.], the action sermon in English, and a 
Gaelic sermon on Monday. Mr. Flytev : table 
services on Sabbath, and an English sermon on 
Monday. In these things you will have to act the 
clergywoman" 

Often during his frequent absence from home did 
Mrs. Macdonald act the part which he thus assigns 
to her. Most sensible was he of his cause of grati- 
tude to God, in having one to conduct his corres- 
pondence, who could do so with rare ability, and who 
was disposed to be helpful to him, for his work's, 
and for his Master's, sake, as well as for his own. 

After his return from London he resumed his 
wonted work at home. But his thoughts were ever 
returning to St. Kilda ; and he takes the earliest 
opportunity of revisiting it. At the very beginning 
of the following summer, he starts for St. Kilda, 
and gives in his journal the following account of his 
landing, reception, and labours there: — 

" We had no sooner appeared in sight than the 
people flew down to the shore to meet us, and stood 
in a body on the shelving rock on which Ave were to 
land, to receive ourselves and our little bark. We 
had no sooner effected a landing (which, owing to 



138 



ST. KILDA. 



the mild state of the weather, was not difficult), than 
they all pressed around me, and grasped my hand 
each in his turn, when I thought they would have 
wrung the very blood out of it. Few words passed 
for a minute or two, but tears trickled from every 
eye. I was overcome myself. At last silence broke, 
and, says one here and there, ' This is a surprise.' 
' This is more than we looked for.' ' We little ex- 
pected to see his face again (for they addressed 
themselves to one another), God bless him for this 
visit. He will bless him whatever becomes of us/ 
After I could speak, for God knows my heart was 
full, I told them I came once more to see them, at 
the request of the Society in Edinburgh, who took 
an interest in their welfare. ' Many, many blessings 
on the head of the Society for their attention to us 
and for sending you among us.' ' And now that I 
have come,' said I, ' to labour for a short time among 
you, I trust you will endeavour to make good use 
of the opportunity thus afforded you/ ' Yes, yes,' 
say they, f as we can, and the Lord enable us to do 
so.' All hands were now called to unload the boat 
and haul it ashore — a process which took them 
nearly three hours, so that it was about eight o'clock 
before we reached the village. We immediately 
entered the old barn in which we were wont to 
assemble, offered prayer and praises to God for His 
mercies, and especially His kindness in permitting us 
to meet again : and so closed the scene of the day. 



PROGRAMME OF WORK. 



130 



il And what thanks can I render to the God of all 
my mercies for bringing me hitherto, and causing me 
once more to see a poor handful of people who had 
been much on my heart since I left them. May I 
be enabled to improve the opportunity I have, and 
may my poor labours while among them, seconded 
by His divine power, prove subservient to His glory, 
and to their eternal welfare. 

" Before dismissing the people. I stated to them 
what I intended should be the plan of my future 
labours among them, and that besides meeting for 
service once a day as formerly, we should also meet 
for an exercise, somewhat resembling family worship, 
when I should read a chapter of Scripture and make 
some observations on it, calculated to instruct them 
in its meaning and to point out the improvement 
they should make of it. I told them that it was my 
wish to direct their attention as much as possible to 
the Scriptures ; and that if we met in the morning, 
which I conceived would be the most convenient 
season of the day, as interfering less with their other 
business, this would be a proper way of commencing, 
the day, and the exercise might be of use to them 
in carrying on their daily occupations. They gladly 
assented, and with one voice replied, ' We can easily 
manage our other business, and what is everything 
else to this V We accordingly fixed on the hours of 
from seven to nine in the morning for the lecture, 
and from six to eight at night for sermon. 



140 



ST. KILDA. 



"Saturday, May 14. — Met this morning at seven, 
agreeably to last night's appointment Read and 
made some general observations on Rom. i., intend- 
ing to continue this epistle in course as containing a 
complete summary of Christian doctrine. The people 
attended most punctually, and listened with great 
earnestness. Spent the forenoon in retirement, pre- 
paring chiefly for the duties of the Sabbath. In the 
evening at six we met for sermon. I addressed the 
people from Rom. i. 9—12, on Paul's feelings with 
regard to the Christians at Rome, his ardent desire 
to see them, and the great end he had in view in 
wishing to have his desire fulfilled. When mention- 
ing some circumstances of resemblance in my own 
case regarding them they were much affected. 
Nothing but kindness will melt the heart of man. 
The Lord bestow on me more of Paul's spirit, love 
to human souls, and devotedness to his own glory. 

i( Monday, May 16. — Yesterday forenoon and 
afternoon lectured from Luke viii. 11—16 on the 
parable of the sower, and in the evening preached 
from verse 18 of the same chapter, 'Take heed how 
ye hear.' Both during the day and in the evening 
the people appeared much affected, and discovered a 
greater degree of solemnity and composure (some- 
thing like a visible sanctity) in hearing the word, 
than I have hitherto observed. I was gratified 
yesterday morning by seeing the children assemble 
in school to read the Scriptures, and by hearing them 



A BAY'S W0KK. 



141 



sing the praises of God with their teacher, an exer- 
cise in which they have made great proficiency and 
for which much praise is due to their instructor. 
Thus f out of the mouths of babes and sucklings has 
the Lord ordained praise/ 

"This day we had our morning exercise at seven, 
from which not an individual was absent. I read 
and made observations to them from Rom. ii., and 
in the evening preached from Acts xvi. 14, on the 
Lord's opening the heart of Lydia. During the 
whole of the sermon the people appeared to be deeply 
concerned, and there seemed to be something like 
the opening of hearts to receive the word. After 
concluding, two children were baptized, which were 
all that had come to the world since I left the island 
excepting one which died soon after it was born. 
In the baptism service I took an opportunity of 
guarding the people against the dangerous error of 
supposing baptism to be synonymous with regenera- 
tion or essential to salvation. They acknowledged 
they had gone into that error, but that they had 
never heard it corrected or exposed. I was pleased 
with their candour and openness to conviction. 

" Tuesday, May 17. — The people were much occu- 
pied during the day '; the men, in delivering each his 
quantity of feathers to the tacksman; and the women, 
on the hill; to which they have to go twice a day to 
milk the cows and sheep, so that I had few to con- 
verse with. I spoke, however, to such as came in 



142 



ST. KILT) A. 



my way, regarding their immortal interests, and found 
that their understandings seemed to be more open 
and their hearts more accessible to the truth. Oh, 
let me not despair, though I should not see instances 
of sudden conversion. The seed below ground may 
be making progress though I see it not. The pro- 
cess of vegetation in the seed which fell into the good 
ground was much slower than that of the seed which 
fell on the stony. Let me therefore sow in hope. 
Lectured in the morning to the people from Rom. iii., 
which led me to notice and dwell much on the im- 
portant doctrine of justification, and I hope not 
without effect. Preached in the evening from 
Zech. xii. 10, on the promise of the outpouring of 
the Spirit and the effects that should follow. I 
felt much impressed myself, and so did my hearers 
seem to do too. The Lord grant preacher and 
hearers a fulfilment of the promise. 

ei Wednesday, May 18. — This day the people were 
employed in the hill or rather in the rocks, fleecing 
the sheep, where every one, young and old, generally 
attends. But before setting out, they readily attend 
the morning service. I read to them in course and 
explained some parts of Rom. iv., calling their atten- 
tion particularly to three important points relative 
to justification. 1. That God justifies the ungodly. 

2. That the ungodly are justified by faith ; and 

3. That it is of faith, that it might be by grace. 
' Three points these/ said the Gaelic teacher to me 



THE SCRTPTURES SEARCHED. 



143 



upon coming out of the room, 1 which the people 
needed much to have explained to them, and im- 
pressed upon their hearts. ' Is fearrd sinn sud 
mu'n d'theid sinn do'n chreig/ ' I heard some of 
the people say among themselves, 'cha neil fhios 
againn ciod an gabhadh tha romhain mu'n d' thig 
an oidhche. 5 Literally, 'We are the better of what 
we heard before going to the rock, we know not 
what danger awaits us before night.' They returned 
in time, however, for the evening sermon, and I 
preached to them from Matt. xi. 28, on our Saviour's 
invitation to the labouring and heavy laden. 

"Thursday, May 19. — Read to, the people this 
morning Rom. v.. and made some general observations 
on the chapter. As I was going along and quoting 
some other parts of Scripture, I observed several of 
the people mark the places in their Bibles as if with 
a view to examine them after going home. I w T as 
pleased to see this evidence of their attention to the 
Scriptures, and at the same time it convinced me of 
the great importance of directing their attention as 
much as possible to the sacred oracles. In conse- 
quence of the Gaelic school established in the island, 
several of the young can read the New Testament 
und some portions of the Old. Some also of those 
more advanced in life can read a little, and this is a 
great benefit to them in hearing public instruction. 
'In the evening I preached from Matt. xi. 28, (a con- 
tinuation of last night's discourse"). 



144 



ST. KILDA. 



"During the day I had an opportunity of con- 
versing with several of the people respecting their 
spiritual concerns, and found them much more intelli- 
gent and better informed than when I was formerly 
among them. The answers they gave to several 
questions which I put to them regarding man's guilt 
and depravity, and the method of acceptance with 
God were, upon the whole, scriptural and correct, 
whereas on my first visit, there was not one of them 
that seemed at all to understand it. Among others 
I met with some of those who appeared to have been 
under serious impressions at the time I was formerly 
on the island. These impressions I fear have sub- 
sided in a great measure, but not quite died away. 
The want of regular gospel ministry is a sad loss in 
this respect. I trust, however, if their feelings are 
not w r hat the}^ were, that their knowledge is much 
improved. And the light which they have acquired 
may account in some measure for the calmness and 
composure of their feelings; at least, it is calculated 
to remove what is excessive in these and to give 
them proper direction. I was particularly pleased, 
however, with the state of the old man's mind, to 
whom I referred in my former journal. He feels 
that he is by nature a lost sinner. He has no trust 
but in the Redeemer. His life is correct, all his 
views as to the gospel are pretty clear. He lost his 
eyesight since I was here before, and upon my ad- 
verting to this and saying, it were well for him if 



INSTANT IN SEASON, OUT OF SEASON. 



145 



the eyes of bis mind were opened, ' I trust they 
are,' says he. 'And what do you see?' said I. 
'That 1 am blind,' says he, 'I see that in myself I 
am a ruined sinner, but that Christ is an almighty 
Saviour/ 'But what if he is not willing?' said I. 
'Willing,' says he, 'would lie die for sinners if he 
was not willing to save them? No, no.' He listens 
to the word with great earnestness, and seems often 
melted under it, I had much pleasure also in con- 
versing with the children. They listened with uncom- 
mon attention to whatever I spoke to them, and their 
tender hearts seemed at times to yield to the truth. 
The Lord gather these lambs with his arms and carry 
them in his bosom. 

''Friday, May 20. — The people, especially the 
males, were employed this day in the rocks at the 
sheep-fleecing ; but readily attended the morning 
lecture before setting out. I read to them in course 
Rom. vi, and pointed out the account which it gives 
of the great doctrine of sanctification, the nature, 
fruits, and importance of this doctrine, and its in- 
separable connection with justification. In the 
evening I had scarcely any but the females for my 
hearers, the men not having got home in time from 
the rocks. I addressed them and the children from 
Isa. Iv. 1, and I trust that notwithstanding the 
smallness of our numbers, He who has said, 'Where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there 

am I in the midst of them/ was with us. 
(103) 1() 



146 



ST. KILDA. 



u Saturday, May 21. — In making some observations 
this morning on Rom. vii., the hearers appeared not 
to understand me, and I confess I seemed to myself 
to have forgotten that I was addressing not strong 
men but babes. T immediately checked myself and 
endeavoured to bring my subject down to the level 
of their capacities, when they listened with uncommon 
attention. The Lord enable me to speak at all times 
to my hearers so as to be understood, and not so 
much to aim at giving fully what I know, as giving 
what may be intelligible and profitable to them. 

" The people during the day were employed 7 in 
delivering barley and other articles of produce to the 
tacksman. Although the feathers chiefly pay the 
rents, the tacksman, nevertheless, receives off their 
hands any surplus of produce they may have beyond 
what they need for themselves, and gives them in return 
such articles of husbandly, &c\, as they may require. 
This afternoon they had a consultation together (for 
they do nothing of importance without holding a 
general meeting), and agreed to make me a present 
of a good fat wedder, uncommonly so, considering the 
season of the year. Although I stood in no need of 
anything in this way, thanks to the liberality of my 
good friend the tacksman, I could not refuse accept- 
ing the present as a testimony of their good will, and 
(may I not hope) a fruit of the gospel. I am more 
inclined to view it in this light, as nothing of the kind 
was hitherto known in St N . Kilda. This therefore 



SIN REBUKED AND CONFESSED. 



147 



made the present doubly valuable. I should not 
omit mentioning, that every day, as soon as the 
females arrived from the hill, we are supplied with 
abundance of warm milk, an instance of their gener- 
osity never hitherto experienced by me or any other. 
It is pleasing to hear these poor creatures talk among 
themselves at the time they are coming forward with 
their little presents. ' He gives us the great good, 
(Math mor) and why should we not give him the 
little (good), little indeed, in comparison with what 
we receive/ 

" I preached in the evening from Matt. xi. 28, 
(conclusion of Thursday's discourse). After finishing 
the sermon I addressed some hints to them regarding 
the due observance of the Sabbath, and pointed out to 
them from Scripture how that day ought to be kept, 
and the great evil of indulging in carnal and worldly 
conversation, and certain practices connected with 
the business of the week, particularly baking their 
bread and carrying their potatoes or other vegetables 
from the field on that day. I had no sooner finished 
than several of the heads of families came up to me, 
and with tears in their eyes, pleaded guilty. ' We 
cannot deny/ said they, 'that we were given to these 
habits, but we have never seen the evil of them, and 
none told us so till now. With God's help we are 
resolved to avoid them in future.' I own I was 
much pleased at the candour and honesty of these 
poor people, and particularly so, that it evinced a 



148 



ST. K1LDA. 



degree of openness to conviction and a readiness of 
mind to submit to the truth seldom to be met with. 
On coming out of the barn, one of the men, adverting 
to my remarks regarding the conversation proper for 
the Sabbath, observed, ' You have been forbidding 
us to speak of worldly things and recommending us 
to talk less about the world and more about spiritual 
subjects, but what will you say to those who have 
nothing but worldly matters to speak of, who cannot 
read, and who have no ideas relative to spiritual 
things/ While I told them that they should listen 
to others who could read and speak on these things, 
and pray that they might be led to know them, I 
felt much the force of the remark they had made. 
The case was truly affecting, and spoke aloud the 
importance of storing the mind with useful know- 
ledge, and so furnishing it with suitable ideas, if we 
would have people duly to observe the Lord's day in 
this manner. 

''Monday May 23. — Yesterday during the day, 
after reading and making some observations on 
Matt, xxvi., relative to the Redeemer's sufferings, I 
preached from Zech. xiii. 7, and in the evening by 
way of following up the subject of the day, from 
John xix. SO, ' It is finished.' The people heard 
with great interest and deep concern ; many were in 
tears- — and not a few among the children. Christ 
crucified is the power of God unto salvation. I was 
pleased to find that the Saturday evening's exhorta- 



Till: FREE OFFER OF CHRIST. 



tion regarding the observance of the Sabbath had a 
good effect. That day was more strictly, observed 
than any I had hitherto spent in the island. No 
levity, no giddy conversation, no disposition to meet 
in parties during the intervals of public worship; 
every one retired to his house and seemed to court 
secresy; indeed, several of them seemed to spend 
much of the time in private devotion, and in short, 
I observed that a more than ordinary degree of 
solemnity and sacred decorum marked their conduct 
during the whole day. I learned besides, that im- 
mediately after going home from sermon on Saturday 
night, the women instantly set about baking the 
Sabbath-day's bread that no unnecessary work might 
be left for that day. This was like being 'doers of 
the word and not hearers only/ 

" We met this morning at the usual hour. I read 
and lectured on Rom. viii. 1-18, a precious portion 
of Scripture, and I trust the season was comfortable, 
at least it was a sweet one to me. In the evening 
I preached from John vi. 32, ' My Father giveth you 
the true bread,' Szc. ; from which I endeavoured to 
represent that free exhibition of Christ in the Gospel 
to sinners, and the warrant thereby afforded them 
for accepting of him, a doctrine which seemed some- 
how to strike them with astonishment, and in which 
there seemed to be something new to them. For 
the sinner naturally riveted to a covenant of works 
ever conceives that the warrant to close with Christ 



150 



ST. KILDA. 



must be found in himself and not in the gospel. 
Hence he labours with all his might, when he takes 
any concern about the matter, to prepare himself, as 
he is pleased to call it, for Christ, and even seeks 
after convictions of sin not so much to prompt him 
to flee to Christ as a ruined creature, as to afford him 
some reason to hope that Christ will more readily 
receive him, and that he is more entitled to bis 
regards than if he had not sought such convictions. 
I meet with this legal disposition in St. Kilda, as 
well as elsewhere. The Lord grant, however, that 
we who preach the gospel may not be the means of 
subverting it by clogging its free calls with conditions 
to be performed on the part of the sinner, which strip 
the gospel of the glory of its grace, and involve the 
distressed soul in a labyrinth of perplexity. 

" Tuesday, May 24, — This morning, after public 
service, a number of the males set off for the neighbour- 
ing Island of Boreray in search of eggs, and brought 
home upwards of eight hundred, besides several 
hundreds which they left on the island for store when 
they should be engaged at the sheep fleecing. It is 
remarkable that the execution they do in this way 
does not appear to diminish the number of these 
birds. On the contrary, notwithstanding what the} 7 
take of eggs and kill of birds in the course of the 
year (and the quantity is immense), they assure me 
that their numbers increase rather than diminish. 
The eggs of these birds, particularly of the solan 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GRACE. 



151 



geese, resembling much those of our common country 
geese, eat well, but those of a small black bird, called 
by the natives the buigar (the Greenland parrot, I 
believe), resembling much in size and taste our hen 
eggs, relish most of any I have eaten on the island. 

" I lectured in the morning from Rom. viii., verse 
20 to the end, and preached from verses 33rd and 
34th of the same chapter in the evening. The 
people seemed to follow me every step while dis- 
cussing the important clauses of this passage, and 
indeed their understandings seem to be opening more 
and more to the truth. 

" Thvrsday, May 26. — Yesterday morning I read 
in course and made observations on Rom. ix. Al- 
though this chapter presents rather strong meat 
than milk for such babes as were before me, yet I 
did not think it safe to conceal from my hearers the 
important subject of which it treats. The sovereignty 
of God in the method of grace lies at the very foun- 
dation of the Gospel, and is a doctrine much calculated 
to humble the proud sinner in the dust. ' Oh, I 
delight (says one somewhere) in the idea of bowing 
to the divine sovereignty.' * I spent a considerable 
part of the day in reading Matthew Henry's life. 
What a holy man ! What an assiduous servant of 
Christ ! What an exemplary Christian character, in 
the closet, in the family, in the Church, and in 
society ! In the evening I preached from Rom. viii. 
33, 34 (a continuation of Tuesday's subject). 



152 



ST. KILDA. 



" This morning the people assembled at an early 
hour for the usual exercise, when I read and gave 
some explanation of Rom. x. Immediately thereafter 
the men proceeded to the rocks to fleece the sheep. 
I took a walk about mid-day to see this operation, 
and it is certainly a hazardous one, both to man and 
beast. The animals are driven together to a precipice 
on the summit of a high perpendicular rock, and are 
there hemmed in on all sides by the men and their 
dogs till every one of them is got at and stripped of 
its fleecy mantle. I saw a poor animal fall headlong 
into the sea from the height of about three hundred 
feet and completely disappear. I am told, however, 
that few accidents of this kind happen. The people 
came home quite disposed for hearing sermon in the 
evening, when I preached to them from Gen. xix. 1 8, 
the Lord's call to Lot to come out of Sodom. All 
listened with uncommon attention notwithstanding 
the fatigues of the day ; and several among them 
were not a little affected. Mr. Mackenzie, the Gaelic 
teacher, told me that after sermon he had observed 
some of them retire to secret places, and heard them 
earnestly engaged in prayer. The Lord pour out 
the spirit of supplications upon them. 

" Friday, May 27. — At our morning exercise this 
day I read and gave some illustration of Rom. xii., 
which afforded me an opportunity of stating the 
connection between faith and practice, and that the 
doctrines of orace are doctrines according to o-odliness, 



HABITS OF THE PEOPLE. 



1 53 



and lead to holiness in heart and life. This I deemed 
necessary, as from the high ground I had occupied 
for some days past, I was afraid the people might 
veer towards Antinomianism (an extreme as dangerous 
if not more so than Arminianism), for I find that they 
could be led into any system ; such is the confidence 
they put in their spiritual instructor. Woe is unto 
me, then, if I lead them not aright ! During the 
day the people were busied in thatching their houses. 
For the winter half year their huts have generally 
two coats of thatch ; but about this season of the 
year they remove the lower, by this time sufficiently 
smoked and sooty, for the benefit of their fields, and 
lay the other in its place. In October again they 
lay a new cover of thatch over the old, and in May 
thereafter remove the old as formerly, thus repeating 
the operation every year. Hence perhaps the reason 
of their confining the smoke within their houses, and 
scarcely giving it any outlet, a circumstance which 
must otherwise prove injurious to health, but out of 
the impropriety of which it would not be easy to 
reason them. Little prizes and rewards might have 
the effect, and indeed much might be effected by 
measures of this kind towards their improvement in 
many of their habits. 

" The tacksman told me this afternoon that he 
had now finished his business in the island, and was 
ready to set off with the first fair wind, but that he 
would remain some days longer if I wished for it. 



154 



ST. KILDA. 



I thanked him warmly, but told him that whenever 
the wind permitted I should not detain him a day. 
We therefore left the matter with Him who has the 
winds and weather in His hands, perfectly satisfied 
that when He saw meet that I should leave this 
island, and had no more work for me to do for the 
present, He would grant such weather as w r e needed. 
This surmise, however, produced a sudden sensation 
among the people, and it was easy to discover the 
picture of sadness in their countenances. In the 
evening I preached on the new birth from John iii. 
1-10. The people heard as if earnestly desirous to 
experience that important change. After the service 
was concluded I married a couple, the only service of 
the kind, I am told, I shall have to perform at this 
time. 

" Saturday, May 28. — This day Mr. M'Lellan and 
I examined the school here established by the Society 
for the support of Gaelic Schools. There were present 
in all fifty-seven — thirty-five males and twenty-two 
females. Among them I was pleased to see several 
grown up and married persons, at least sixteen or 
eighteen ; and considering that they were deprived of 
their teacher for nearly the last twelvemonths, the 
appearance they made was wonderful. About nine 
of them can read the New Testament with tolerable 
ease; many besides can read small portions of it; and 
upwards of forty read considerable parts of the Psalm 
Book — a species of composition of which, from their 



THE SCHOOL. 



155 



musical turn, they seem to be very fond. In short, 
young and old acquitted themselves beyond my ex- 
pectations. After this part of the business was over 
they gave us a specimen of their singing. Coleshill, 
Bangor, Scarborough, St. George's, &c., were sung 
with great animation, and in a manner which did 
credit to teacher and pupils. This being finished, 
I instituted a diet of examination regarding the 
principles of the Christian religion. Parents and 
children were present. After putting some questions 
to the parents and grown up people all round, who 
gave me pretty satisfactory answers, I examined the 
children, particularly such as could read, on some 
parts of the chapter which they had just read 
(Luke vii.), and the answers they gave the several 
questions which were put were most satisfying, such 
indeed as indicated great attention to what they had 
read and heard, and as might have put to the blush 
many who enjoy greater advantages. After the 
examination the teacher distributed some Bibles and 
Testaments among some of the best scholars ; and a 
few Gaelic catechisms and tracts with which some 
friends had supplied me before leaving home, were 
thankfully received by young and old. I concluded 
the whole of this pleasant exercise by an address to 
parents and children. The subject of the morning 
lecture was Rom. xiii., and in the evening I preached 
from verse 11th of the same chapter. The people 
heard with deep attention, and not the less so for the 



156 



ST. KILDA. 



exercises of the day. Thus I passed as comfortable 
a day as I had since 1 came to St. Kilda, 

" Monday, May 30. — Yesterday during the day 
I lectured from Heb. ix. 1—5, on the Mosaic taber- 
nacle and its furniture. The people heard with un- 
common attention, and after leaving the barn were 
heard to express to one another their surprise that so 
much of the gospel was to be found in these Old 
Testament emblems. 1 Oh, how blind are we,' would 
the one say to the other, ' that cannot see these things. 
We must get our children to learn to read the writ- 
ings, that we may through them be able to know 
these things. In the evening I preached from 2 Cor. 
iii. 1 8, on beholding the glory of the Lord in the 
mirror of the gospel. I own I felt considerable 
enlargement on this subject, and not a little impressed 
while speaking on it. Many of my hearers were 
evidently affected, not a few in tears. The Lord 
remove the veil from off' their hearts, and let in 
glimpses of this glory. It was delightful in the 
evening, between nine and ten o'clock, to hear the 
praises of God and prayers ascend from almost every 
family in the village ; the children reading the Scrip- 
tures and conducting the singing, and the fathers 
performing the other part of the service. A new 
thing this indeed in St. Kilda. The Lord grant it 
may be continued and attended with much of his 
countenance. 

" This day, after attending the morning lecture, 



PROSPECT OF PARTING. 157 

several of the male inhabitants set off for the neioh- 
bouring island of Soay, where they remain eight or 
ten days at the sheep fleecing. This they delayed 
as long as they well could owing to my being in the 
place. So they parted with me without the prospect 
of seeing me on their return, and we were mutually 
sad enough at parting. I preached in the evening from 
2 Cor. iii. 18 (continuation of last night's discourse^. 

" I had frequently before now, and particularly at 
this time, mentioned to the people the intentions of 
the Society with regard to sending them a minister 
when the necessary buildings were erected, and that 
arrangements w T ere making for getting this accom- 
plished with as little delay as possible. They were 
overjoyed at the tidings. ' And we hope/ said they, 
* that they will send us a good minister. 5 ' What 
kind of minister would you have to be sent?' ' One 
that will tell us of our danger and preach Christ to 
us/ ' You may trust that to the Society/ said I. 
' That we may, seeing the interest they have taken 
in us already/ 

"The tacksman and I are looking every day for 
fair w 7 ind to set us off. But the Lord's time is the 
best. 

"Tuesday, May 31. — This morning I read and 
made observations on Rom. xiv ; and in the evening, 
after reading chap, xv., preached from the last verse 
of it, — ' Now the God of peace be with you all/ I 
had no sooner read the words than some of the 



158 



ST. KILDA. 



women burst out a crying, and all were in tears, as 
if anticipating from the very nature of the subject 
that it would be mv last ; and indeed I had some 
idea myself that this would be the case, especially as 
the wind was veering round and becoming more 
favourable for us. Dining a considerable part of 
the discourse I felt much affected, so much so that I 
could at times scarcely give utterance to my senti- 
ments, and the sobbings and crying of the people 
interrupted me not a little. 

" Wednesday, Jane 1. — This morning I read and 
made some remarks on Eph. v., which I anticipate 
will be the last exercise of the kind I shall have with 
this poor people. The wind is quite fair for us, and 
we are preparing to set off as early as possible in the 
afternoon. The poor people are sad indeed. It is 
painful for me to meet them here and there. The 
Lord be with them and bless to them what they have 
heard. 

" Secdpa, Harris, Friday, June 3. — On Wednes- 
day evening at eight o'clock we left St. Kilda, the 
wind quite fair, and continued so for nearly two 
hours, but during the whole night we were quite 
becalmed. About sunrise, however, a fine breeze 
sprung up from the S.W., and we got to Caolis in 
North Uist by ten o'clock, where we were most 
kindly and hospitably entertained. 

" A little before leaving St. Kilda the people 
gathered around me and begged for prayers ere we 



A SAD PARTING. 



159 



should part. We stepped immediately into the barn, 
I read and sang Ps. cxxi., and then prayed with 
them for the last time. The scene was peculiarly 
affecting. They then accompanied us to the shore, 
and amidst tears and cries I shook hands with them, 
' commending them to the Lord and to the word of 
his grace/ and praying ( that he might build them 
up and give them an inheritance among them that 
are sanctified/ As formerly, they ascended the brow 
of a hill hanging over the shore, and sat looking at 
us till sable night had concealed us from their view. 
I felt sorrowful indeed at parting with them, and 
could not but think of them very often since. I 
could compare my feelings at the time only to those 
of a father separating from his family. But it was 
consoling to me to think that thej r were under His 
care c who neither slumbers nor sleeps/ " 



CHAPTER IX. 



VISITS IRELAND— REVISITS ST. KILDA. 

N 1827 Mr. Daly, then rector of Powers- 
court, now Bishop of Cashel, anxious that 
the gospel should be preached in their 
native tongue to the Irish-speaking population 
around him, wrote to Dr. Dewar, then minister 
in Glasgow, requesting him to procure the services of 
a Gaelic evangelist. He at once - applied to Mr. 
Macdonald. When Dr. Dewar s letter reached him, 
he was preparing to start for St. Kilda. He could 
not abandon his intention of again visiting his deso- 
late flock in St. Kilda, and he was almost as unwil- 
ling to refuse the call from Ireland. To visit both 
the Grey Isle and the Green would require his absence 
from his own charge for at least five months. He 
therefore thus replies to Dr. Dewar' s letter : — 

" Urquhart Mansk, 26th March, 1S27. 

" My Dear Sir, — I was duly favoured with your 
interesting letter regarding Ireland. After weighing 
the subject over and over again in my mind, I feel 




LETTER ANENT IRELAND. 



1C1 



much at a loss what to write in reply. I admit that 
the case is urgent, and that the call from Ireland is, 
' Come over and help us.' But I see difficulties in 
the way of my attempting the expedition, which it 
is unnecessary here to state, but which discourage 
me from holding out the prospect at present of my 
being able to accomplish so desirable an object. If 
the Lord, however, has said that I shall go to Ire- 
land, to Ireland I must go. In that event, he will 
make darkness light and crooked paths straight be- 
fore me. At present I cannot venture to give a 
decisive answer on the subject. I am setting out on 
another trip to St. Kilda, and hope (D.V.) to be 
back about the end of April. If you can let the 
matter remain as it stands till then, I shall, as soon 
as possible after my return, make up my mind, and 
give you a definitive answer. 

" It is truly generous in Mr. Daly to propose de- 
fraying the expenses of the itinerancy. 

" I have only to add, that whether I can visit 
Ireland at this time or not, I hope I shall carry Ire- 
land in my spirit whithersoever I go, and remember 
her before the throne of grace. It shall, I trust, be 
my prayer to God, that he may maintain what he 
has wrought in her; bless the ' day of small things' 
to her; and grant that the dawn which seems now 
to visit her may be the prelude of a glorious day, 
which shall bless every corner of that benighted and 
hitherto neglected isle with life, light, liberty, and 

(103) 1 1 



162 



IRELAND. 



joy! — I am, my dear Sir, most sincerely and faith- 
fully yours, 

" John Macdonald." 

Having visited St Kilda, and readied his home 
again in safety, he found letters, urging him to visit 
Ireland, awaiting him. Power to refuse such a call 
formed no portion of his strength ; and as Mr. Daly 
indicated August as the most suitable month for the 
work in Ireland, and as this would give him an 
opportunity of completing his summer work in Scot- 
land, it was all the easier for him to consent. At 
the appointed time he started for Ireland, reached 
Dublin early in August, and at once began to pre- 
pare for his work by acquiring the language. His 
first tour was to the south, extending to Bandon. 
His labours there he thus describes in letters to Mrs. 
Macdonald :— 

" I arrived in Dublin on Thursday, and went to 
visit Mr. Daly next day, whom I found to be the 
Christian indeed — the humble, affectionate, zealous, 
and liberal-minded Christian. I have since spent 
my time in reading Irish. I reached Kilkenny on 
the 17th, distant from Dublin fifty-seven miles: and 
I feel quite at home in the house of Mr. Rae, an 
Episcopal clergyman, a most excellent Christian man, 
whose wife is of a kindred spirit. Here, and as I 
proceed southwards, I shall meet with some of the 
native Irish, whom I must attempt to address. The 



HIS WORK IN IRELAND. 



163 



result you shall hear in my next letter. I foresee 
difficulties in the way, owing to the difference of our 
dialects, and to ray being obliged to study the old 
Irish characters, in order to be able to read the 
Scriptures to the people in the only form in which 
they will allow them to be read to them. A greater 
difficulty arises from the influence of the priests over 
the lower classes. But above all is the difficulty 
arising from the power of the prince of darkness, 
who holds priests and people as his slaves, and leads 
them captive at his will. -But the Lord, I trust, will 
make darkness light and rough places plain. 

" This town of Kilkenny, famed for its fire with- 
out smoke, its water without mud, and its streets all 
of marble, contains a population of 24,000, of whom 
the Roman Catholics are to the Protestants in the 
proportion of twenty-four to one. Mr. Eae and Mr. 
Shaw, both excellent and zealous men, are the rectors, 
and I trust their labours are not in vain." 

" Bandon, 3d September. — After remaining at 
Kilkenny for four days, during which I met with few 
individuals who could speak Irish, I proceeded to this 
place, which is in the heart of an Irish country, as 
the people call it; meaning thereby a country where 
the Irish is chiefly spoken. On my way I stopped 
for a day at Clonmell, and for two days at Cork. 
The former is about the size of Elgin, and the latter 
contains a population of 1 30,000. Cork is intensely 
Popish ; but even in that Sardis there are a few who 



164 



IRELAND, 



have not defiled their garments. I met there Dr. 
Macquarry of the Established Church, and several 
others, who are decidedly on the Lord's side. In 
neither of these places was I able to do much, beyond 
reading and conversing with some Irish teachers. 
At first it required all the attention in listening, and 
all the deliberation in speaking, of which we were 
capable, to catch each other's meaning. The lan- 
guage we found to be evidently the same, but the 
accent and pronunciation very different. The dia- 
lect spoken here — that is, in the southern districts — 
is far more difficult to understand than that spoken 
in the north, the latter approaching very near to our 
Scotch Gaelic. On this account I conceived, and I 
stated so to my friend Mr. Daly, that it would be 
more to the purpose to send me to those districts 
where my Gaelic would be best understood. His 
answer was, ' In the north there has been something 
already done, but the south has not yet been touched/ 
I acquiesced, of course, in his opinion. 

" I arrived in this place about twelve days ago, 
and have since resided with Mr. Newman, one of the 
clergymen of the town, Mr. Daly's brother-in-law. 
He and his wife are truly devoted to the cause of 
Christ. The population of Bandon is 12,000, two- 
thirds of whom are Papists. In regard to any poor 
labours of mine, I can say but little. After spend- 
ing a few days in conversing with some of the 
natives in their own language, and reading portions 



FRUITS OF HIS LABOURS, 



165 



of the Irish New Testament, I commenced preaching 
to them on Thursday last, and have since been re- 
peating the exercise almost every day. I have 
preached at least five times — thrice in a large school- 
house in the town, capable of containing about eight 
hundred people, and twice in a village distant about 
three miles from Bandon/' 

As he became more unfettered in the use of the 
Irish dialect, he began to preach with somewhat of 
his wonted power and fervour, and the spell of his 
eloquence began to touch the Irish heart. Many 
Roman Catholics were drawn out to hear him under 
the shade of night. Nicodemus-like, they would 
steal into the place of meeting. The truth was 
reaching the conscience of some of them, and not a 
few began to ask, " What must we do to be saved V" 
After service one night in Bandon, " three Roman 
Catholic young women," Mr. Macdonald writes, 
" stood near the door as I was going out, apparently 
affected, and as if anxious to speak to me. ' Have 
you been hearing sermon this evening?' I asked. 
'Yes, sir/ 'And how do you feel?' 'Not well, 
sir.' ' Why?' 'Because your preaching and that of 
the priest differ.' 'How so?' 'Why, the priest 
tells us we must do penance, and say our Paters and 
Ave Marias often ; but you tell us that we must come 
to Christ as we are, and that he has done all for us.' 
' That is what the Bible tells us,' I said. ' Do you 
read the Bible?' 'No, sir: w r e dare not.' 'Why?' 



166 



IRELAND. 



4 The priest won't allow us.' 'Can yon read it?' 
1 Yes, a little ; and we could read it better, but that 
the priest took us away from school/ 1 Why would 
you leave the school for him?' 'Oh, sir, we must 
obey the priest, else what will become of us at last, 
when we need extreme unction?' ' Don't you think/ 
I asked, 'that Christ is greater than the priest?' 
' Oh yes, sir,' they at once replied. ' Ought you not, 
then, to obey Him?' I said. ' Yes, sir; but do we 
not obey Him when we obey the priest?' ' Only 
when the priest speaks according to the Bible. Are 
you sure that he does so ? ' ' We are not, sir,' they 
answered ; ' and if what you said to-night is true, 
he does not/ 'I spoke and read from the Bible.' 
c And you spoke, sir, to our hearts. Oh, what shall 
we do!' they cried. 'Believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and you shall be saved.' They then sobbed 
and cried, so that I could not be heard by them. 
After they had calmed a little, I shook hands with 
them, telling them I would pray for them ; beseech- 
ing them to remember that should I never see them 
again in this world, they and their priest and I 
should meet together before the judgment-seat of 
Christ ; and assuring them that if they were til en 
lost, their priest could do nothing for them, and that 
I would be a swift witness against them. Thus we 
parted, mutually affected. May the Lord bless the 
interview to their souls !" 

From Bandon he started on two evangelistic tours 



PREACHING IN IRISH. 



167 



along the southern coast, of which he writes the 
following account: — ■ 

" During the first of them I travelled each day 
from ten to twenty Irish miles, and preached in the 
evening in a town or village, and sometimes in 
country places where there were only a few scattered 
farm-houses and miserable huts. The people in all 
these places assembled uncommonly well, and dis- 
covered an eagerness to hear the Word. I preached 
to them in both languages, and generally the same 
discourse, in order that such of my hearers, as had 
a smattering of English, might better understand 
my Gaelic. I find that by this means the people 
take up my ideas pretty correctly. But you must 
know that I speak neither Gaelic nor Irish, but a 
mixed dialect in order to approach their own — the 
worst in all Ireland — and make myself as intelligible 
to them as possible. In this I have succeeded 
beyond my anticipations. Some of my hearers tell 
me, ' Sir, your Gaelic is different from ours, but yet 
we understand it pretty well;' some say, 'the most 
of it;' others say, 'every sentence/ During this 
tour I had conversations with not a few Roman 
Catholics, regarding the Scriptures and the gospel 
method of salvation ; and I could perceive that their 
faith in their own system is tottering, and that their 
consciences tell them that matters are not right. 
But, alas ! they are ignorant of the Scriptures, and 
are not allowed by their priests to read or to hear 



168 



IRELAND. 



them. Oh, I feel for them and could weep over 
their sad state ! They are desirous to hear me, but 
they must not be seen in doing so. They come 
therefore only at night; and when they come, they 
skulk into corners, and into the darkest parts of the 
apartments in which we meet, church, schoolhouse, 
barn, or storeroom, as it may happen to be. My 
public preaching during this tour has had the effect, 
I could perceive, of creating much speculation among 
the people, and of leading them to think, and to 
talk together of the things which, they have heard. 
This is reckoned a good sign. I could in a few 
instances discover some individuals affected even to 
tears. But I shall leave results with the Lord. Be 
it mine to sow the seed, and His to give the in- 
crease. 

"On the second tour Mi*. Newman accompanied 
me. We took a different route, the terminus being 
Ban try, a town situated on a fine bay, fit to con- 
tain all the navies of Europe, the scenery around 
which is almost the finest in all Ireland. This trip 
I greatly enjoyed. We met in every place, clergy- 
men of the Established Church who were decidedly 
evangelical, and zealous in promoting the Lord's 
work. We had Bible Society meetings in every 
place, at which Mr. Newman and I spoke, and chiefly 
in support of giving the Scriptures to the natives in 
their own language. | In the evenings, sermons were 
preached in English and Gaelic which were remark- 



THE PRIESTS AGENT. 



169 



ably well attended. Churches capable of containing 
from fifteen hundred to two thousand were crowded, 
and chiefly by Roman Catholics. I am convinced 
that the Lord was present on various occasions, and 
that the Word has not been without effect. We 
returned from this excursion fatigued by our labours 
but comforted in our minds and desirous to give 
glory to God for what had been done. It was 
particularly consoling to us, that so many hundreds 
of Papists attended in every place. To get them to 
hear the Word at all from the mouth of a Protestant 
is a mighty object gained; and particularly so here, 
a part of Ireland, which in the language of Mr. Daly. 
* has not been touched/ " 

It was an evidence of his labours not being in 
vain, that the priests became alarmed. Hundreds 
of their people crowded the churches when the 
heretic from Scotland preached; and they felt it was 
high time to make an effort to do away with any 
impression which he might have produced. They 
employed an agent, with a smart Irish tongue, to 
address the congregation after a sermon which Mr. 
Macdonald preached in the neighbourhood of Bandon. 
"After finishing service," he writes, "a smart look- 
ing tall 3 7 oung man about twenty-five years of age, 
and apparently above the common rank, stood up 
before the congregation had retired, and begged to 
be heard for a few minutes. I gave him full per- 
mission, and the congregation again sat down. He 

7 © o © 



170 



IRELAND. 



prefaced a long and elaborate speech by adverting to 
my Gaelic, as different from that of their country, 
and therefore not intelligible to them; and whether 
it was intelligible or not, that I could have no good 
design in coming among them; that my object must 
be to make proselytes; and that, if this was really 
my object, he could tell me I had better have 
remained at home. He then launched out into the 
subject of Catholic Emancipation, on which he 
delivered a warm philippic; casting the blame on 
the Protestants of their just rights being withheld 
from Catholics. When he finished his harangue, 
which occupied about twenty minutes, he looked 
around for some expression of applause from the 
people; but in this he was sadly disappointed; for 
with the exception of two or three who had evi- 
dently come along with him for the purpose of 
supporting him, he could read nothing in their faces 
but expressions of disapprobation. This I was 
prepared to expect, as the doctrine which they had 
heard that evening seemed to make an impression 
on their minds, and not a few of them were in tears. 
After he had finished it became necessary for me to 
make some reply. I did so in as calm a manner as 
I could. With respect to the language I told him 
that, if I could not speak their dialect no more could 
they speak mine; yet if I was understood that my 
object was gained. If I was not understood, he had 
no reason to fear that I should make proselytes, and 



THE PKIEST'S AGENT ANSWERED. 171 

so might keep his mind easy; but that I suspected 
I was better understood than he was willing: to 
admit, from the alarm which he seemed to have 
taken and the exertion he had made, that evening, 
to throw cold water on all that I had spoken to the 
people. As to making proselytes I assured him, I 
came not to Ireland for such a purpose, but if 
possible to make converts to the Redeemer by 
preaching to sinners the way of salvation through 
Christ. In regard to Catholic Emancipation, it 
being altogether a political subject, I should deem it 
foreign to my duty as a clergyman, and especially in 
such a place, and on Sabbath evening, to touch upon 
it, further than to say, that there is an emancipation, 
of a more important kind, for which I plead — 
emancipation from sin, Satan, superstition, error, and 
delusion. I concluded by observing, that, as he had 
not touched any point of doctrine which I had 
brought forward, which I expected he would have^ 
done, I considered that doctrine as standing uncon- 
tradicted, and besought him and all present to weigh 
it seriously; and on returning to their homes to 
pray to God for an understanding to perceive, and 
a heart to believe and feel it; and to remember, that 
they and I should one day appear before the 
judgment-seat of Christ, where, if they rejected the 
doctrine, I would be a witness against them. Thus 
ended the discussion ; and all retired quietly. I had 
to travel three miles to my lodging. My driver 



172 



IRELAND AND ST. KILDA. 



told me he was afraid that I would be waylaid 
But the Lord preserved us." 

On another occasion while expounding the parable 
of the good Samaritan, and referring to the conduct 
of the priest, he said, " I am not to inquire at 
present why the priest passed the poor man by." 
At once, a man rose up in the congregation and 
said, " Plase your Bivirence, I can tell you why the 
priest passed him." " I shall be glad to hear," the 
preacher said, "if you can tell." " And that I can," 
he said, "it was because he knew that the thieves 
had left no money in his pocket." When the service 
was over, Mr. Macdonald met with his assistant, 
who told him that very lately he had been obliged to 
part with his last penny to pay the priest for burying 
his wife and saying masses for her soul. His own 
experience had helped him, he thought, to explain 
the conduct of the priest referred to in the parable. 

On his return from Ireland, he applied himself 
with his w r onted energy, to the work of procuring 
funds for the erection of a church and manse in St. 
Kilda. He preached over all Scotland, making 
collections w r herever he went, till at last the required 
amount was gathered. The manse and church were 
built, to the wonder and joy of the poor Islanders, 
and a minister was appointed to the charge. In 
1830 he accompanied the minister and his family 
to St. Kilda to introduce him to his future flock. 
The feelings which stirred his heart on this occasion 



SOUTH UIST. 



1*73 



are described in the following journal of his farewell 
visit to the island : — 

" Milton, South TJist, June 19, 1830. — This 
district, and all to the south of it, lies far from the 
parish church, and the great mass of the people (I 
am told, at least two-thirds of the whole population) 
are Roman Catholics ; and both Protestants and 
Catholics seem to be buried in ignorance, and to rest 
quietly in the stillness of mora] death. In these 
circumstances it would be highly criminal in a 
servant of the Redeemer not to take, nay, to seize, 
every opportunity which came in his way for ad- 
dressing immortal souls — souls that, in the deplorable 
circumstances already mentioned, are posting daily 
to the eternal world, and that must sink for ever 
into unutterable perdition, unless the good tidings of 
great joy have been sounded to them, in order to 
their being received by faith on their part. If they 
have heard and rejected these tidings, the fault must 
be theirs ; but if they have not heard them, the 
fault must be ours. It were much to be washed 
that either of the Societies in the south who supply 
destitute parts of our country with missions would 
cast ' a pitying eye* over this part of South 
Uist. 

" Mr. M'Lellan having procured liberty for me, 
from the officiating clergyman of the parish, to preach 
here and in the neighbourhood, I have employed 
myself in that way, Thursday, yesterday, and to-day, 



174 



PREACHING IN UIST. 



and intend to continue to do so while I remain in 
this place. The people — Catholics as well as Pro- 
testants — assemble in crowds. Each class seems 
most eager to hear the word, and to listen to it with 
the deepest attention. 

" Yesterday, two young females, who among others 
had attracted my attention, as seemingly in deep 
distress, and indeed in tears during the whole service, 
I have been told were of the Roman Catholic per- 
suasion. The Lord bless the word to these benighted 
and misguided people ! Why should we not love the 
souls of Catholics as well as Protestants, and do them 
all the good we' can? Alas, that so often we should 
treat them as if they were a people of a different 
species from ourselves! 

" Yesterday, too, a circumstance occurred during the 
time of divine service, which struck me forcibly as ex- 
pressive of the poor people's anxiety and ardent thirst 
to hear the word. Just as I was finishing the service, 
and about to dismiss the congregation, a new set of 
people arrived with a view to hear sermon — no fewer, 
I suppose, than from fifty to sixty in number, who, it 
would appear, had come from a distance, or had not 
got timeous notice. On my expressing a deep regret 
on their account that the service was now over, and 
that, should I begin a new one, I was afraid that the 
patience of my old hearers would be completely 
exhausted, up started one of these old hearers im- 
mediately, and addressing me, said, ' No, no, you will 



EFFECTS OF HIS PREACHING. 



175 



not tire out our patience though you should continue 
till midnight. I know not who could tire of hearing 
such doctrines ; and it is not every day we have 
such an opportunity, &c. Therefore, sir, if it be 
agreeable to you, we shall be glad that you con- 
tinue longer/ The people in general expressed their 
cordial acquiescence in what the man had thus 
uttered. Accordingly, I commenced a new service, 
and had both freedom and pleasure in addressing 
them. I trust the word, too, had some effect; at 
least several seemed to be deeply impressed under it, 
and were in tears during the whole time. After dis- 
missing the congregation, and as I was passing along 
the crowd, I could hear one say to his neighbour, 
'What wonderful doctrines are these we heard to- 
day !' Another (a Roman Catholic, I believe), ' Won- 
derful indeed ! and when would our priest give us 
such doctrines?' 1 Indeed/ says a third, 'his words 
pierced my own heart' — literally, 1 made holes through 
my heart/ I retired immediately to my closet, and 
prayed that the Lord would give these poor people 
savingly to know that his word is quick and power- 
ful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing 
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, &c. 
(Heb. iv. 12). 

" Wednesday, June 23. — The weather has for 
some days been uncommonly cold and stormy, and 
still continues so. Hence I am still detained here. 
The Lord overrule the detention for his glory and 



176 



ST. KILDA. 



the good of souls ! On Sabbath last I preached in 
the forenoon at a place called Hallam (three miles to 
the south of this), for the accommodation of the 
people who live about the south point of Uist; and 
in the afternoon at Mr. M'Lellan's here. The at- 
tendance at each place was very considerable, and 
the people listened with uncommon attention. Many 
of them appeared to discover signs of anxiety in their 
very countenances, as if they wished to inquire, ' Men 
and brethren, what shall we do?' Several Roman 
Catholics were present, as I have been told, on both 
occasions, and seemed to feel alike with the rest. 

"St. Kilda, Thursday Forenoon, July 1. — All 
praise be to the God of mercies, who has brought me 
hitherto, and permitted me once again to see the 
little group of immortal beings who inhabit this 
sequestered spot, w T ho have been from the first much 
on my spirit, and in whom, to the last, I trust I 
shall feel the deepest interest ! It is now upwards of 
three weeks since I left home, detained by contrary 
winds and tempestuous weather; and while I trust 
that the detention has not altogether been unproduc- 
tive of benefit to some, yet I do not now regret that 
I have seen St. Kilda. The Lord, in granting me 
this wish, has both disappointed my fears and con- 
firmed my hopes. For both fears and hopes I cer- 
tainly had : fears that I should be obliged to return 
without accomplishing my object; nay, that the Lord 
frowned on the undertaking altogether, as a measure 



A TUIAL OF FAITH. 



177 



uncalled for, or at least not entered upon with pro- 
per motives, and that therefore he made the elements 
to combine against me, and made the very aspect of 
the heavens to exhibit the frown on my Father's 
countenance. But I had hopes, too, which in the 
darkest season had not wholly left me, that He who 
leads the blind in ways which they have not known, 
would yet ' make darkness light before me/ and 
1 bring me to an expected end/ Nay, the Lord at 
times, in reference to this matter, enabled me to 
walk by faith, and not by sight, and firmly to believe 
that 

' Behind a frowning providence 
He hides a smiling face.' 

Hence I was led to view the present aspect of His 
providence as designed rather as a trial of my faith 
than as an expression of his displeasure. 

" Yesterday forenoon, at Pabbay, as I was deeply 
exercised about these matters, the wind, which for 
several days before had been quite ahead of us for 
St. Kilda, began to veer round to the south and 
south-east, and by the afternoon became so fair and 
moderate, as to invite us to put to sea. Accordingly, 
with all possible expedition, we set about getting every- 
thing aboard, and ourselves in readiness for setting 
off. Our passengers consisted of Mr. Mackenzie, 
Mrs. Mackenzie and child, with Mrs, Mackenzie's 
mother and sister, Mr. Bethune, tutor in Mr. 
M'Lellan's family, and Major J. M'Neil, who also 



178 



A JOYFUL SUKPKISE. 



accompanied us on the trip, and whose society will 
be no small addition to our comfort. These, together 
with myself formed the whole party; and by six 
P.M. we were all on board. 

i£ At seven we set sail, and the wind continuing 
fair and steady with us all the way, we arrived in 
the bay here at four this morning, accomplishing the 
passage, commonly reckoned sixty miles, precisely in 
nine hours. 

" At such an early hour it could not be expected 
that the inhabitants had shaken off their midnight 
slumbers. All, accordingly, was stillness ; not a 
smoke to be seen, nor the bark of a dog to be heard. 
What an easy prey in such a case were these poor 
people to the invaders ! The sight reminded me of 
the fearful condition of carnally secure sinners. How 
easy a prey are such to the enemy of souls, and how 
defenceless their state when death comes to rouse 
them from their fatal slumbers, and summon them 
to appear before God ! Some individual, however, 
who had been on foot, and espied us, gave the alarm 
to the rest; aiicl in about half an hour all the souls 
on the island w r ere down at the shore to meet and 
to receive us. The sea being tolerably smooth at 
the time, we had no difficulty in landing. But 
scarcely had I got my foot on shore, when all 
crowded around me, vieing with each other who 
should be the first to get at my hand, and give it a 
hearty shake and squeeze; and as for the 'how dye 



A WARM WELCOME. 



179 



do's/ and welcomes back again, and blessings on 
myself and the Society, who had been so mindful of 
their poor souls, &c, these and similar expressions, 
were dealt out without number. Indeed, a tide of 
joy seemed at the time to overflow our hearts, and 
occasionally to impede utterance. Mr. Mackenzie, 
who, with his female friends, had been all this while 
standing at a little distance from us, gazing and 
gazed at occasionally, was at last introduced to them 
as the minister appointed for them by the Society. 
They again prayed for many benedictions on the 
Society, but flew immediately around the strangers; 
and though he had been their seven years' acquain- 
tance they could not have more warmly received 
him. ' We trust/ say they, ' the Lord has sent you 
to us. Oh, may He bless your labours among us ! ' 
with many other expressions to the same effect. On 
my mentioning to them how much they owed to the 
Society for the privilges now conferred upon them, 
' Yes/ says one of them, ' we owe much to God and 
to them under God. See you/ says he, ' these build- 
ings/ pointing to the church and manse, 6 who would 
have thought some years ago that such should ever 
be seen in St. Kilda ? The Society have provided 
these for us, and now have sent us a messenger — 
we trust a minister of Jesus Christ. The Lord 
reward them for their Christian labours, whatever 
becomes of us ; and indeed they shall in nowise lose 
their reward/ After hearing them thus fully out, I 



180 



THE NEW CHURCH. 



proposed that we should immediately assemble in 
church, and offer thanksgivings to God for his great 
goodness towards us on this occasion. They all 
marched with me in a body, entered the new place 
of worship, and seemed with heart and lip to join 
in the service. I just read a chapter, sung a portion 
of a psalm, and concluded with prayer. Before dis- 
missing, I told them we should meet for sermon at 
such an hour in the afternoon as suited their con- 
venience. After the service was over, my fellow- 
travellers and I stepped into the missionary's dwell- 
ing-house (or manse, as it may be called in St. 
Kilda), and after taking a look through the different 
apartments of it, all which appeared to be well and 
substantially finished, we sat down to rest and refresh 
us after the fatigues and fastings of the voyage. 

" But the feelings of delight which arose in my 
mind at seeing buildings, the erection of which in 
St. Kilda no one would ever have anticipated a few 
years ago, now completely executed with stone, lime, 
and slate, and that in the most substantial and 
satisfactory manner ; at seeing a church — a house 
built for the worship of God here — a house in which 
there was reason to hope His Gospel would be 
preached and His ordinances administered for genera- 
tions to come — a house, to the erection of which on 
this lonely island not a few of the inhabitants, per- 
haps, from age to age, down to a remote posterity, 
may trace the means, under God, which had been 



PROGRESS IN KNOWLEDGE. 



181 



blessed to their souls for salvation — a house, in short, 
in regard to which there is reason to believe, that 
' when the Lord shall write up the people, He shall 
count that this man and that man were born there;' 
the feelings of my heart I say, at the time, it was 
beyond my power to describe. 

"Friday, July 2. — This day the people were 
employed with the young man Mr. Bethune (who 
had come to act for the tacksman) in delivering 
feathers, barley, &c, till five in the afternoon, when 
they met for sermon; and I addressed them from 
Ps. xxxvii. 4, ' Delight thyself also in the Lord,' &c. 
And if I was enabled, in any measure, to enter into 
the spirit of these words, some of my hearers 
certainly seemed to go along with me. There 
certainly appears to be an improvement, in point of 
knowledge, with them. But there seems to be more 
of the love of the truth among them, and more 
openness of heart to receive it, than I had discovered 
on former occasions. I speak generally. There are 
many exceptions of course. But to a considerable 
part of them this observation will apply. The result is, 
that I find it easier to speak to them, and that the 
truths addressed to them seem to sink insensibly and 
without apparent obstruction into their hearts. 

"Saturday, July 3. — During the greater part of 
this day the people were employed as yesterday, in 
delivering feathers, barley, cheese, &c, to Mr. 
M'Lellan's clerk. For it is in these and other 



182 



THE NEW MINISTER INTRODUCED. 



articles of produce that the St. Kilda rents are paid. 
At five P.M. they assembled for sermon, when I 
preached to them from these words in 1 John i. 7, 
'The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us 
from all sin/ And while addressing a few thing's to 
them regarding the blood of Christ, some of them 
were affected to tears, and seemed to melt under the 
doctrine. The old blind man, in particular, of whom 
I made mention in my former journals, and who, I 
am happy to learn, holds out steadfastly in the ways 
of the Lord, could not resist shedding tears, and that 
most copiously, on the occasion. The people this 
day, as on former occasions, made me a present of a 
good fat wedder, in aid of our provisions, which I 
accepted as a proof of their gratitude and good will. 

"Monday, July 5. — Yesterday being the day on 
which Mr. Mackenzie was introduced to the people, 
and commenced his services among them, was to me 
the most important and delightful day I ever spent 
at St. Kilda. This day the people were employed, 
as on Friday and Saturday, with Mr. Bethune, till 
about five in the afternoon, when they assembled for 
sermon, and I addressed them from Ps. lxxxiv. 11, 
1 The Lord will give grace and glory/ No subjects 
touch them like those of grace. They seem to melt 
under such topics. What an argument to ministers 
for holding out the doctrines of grace continually to 
the view of their hearers ! It is such doctrines alone 
that are calculated to win the heart of the sinner; and 



A ST. KILDA MARRIAGE. 



183 



to such doctrines alone will God append the seal and 
sanction of his power. I was pleased to observe 
some young people apparently impressed, and deeply 
so, under the discourse. Indeed, I was glad to 
learn that several among this class are in a hopeful 
way. There are blossoms at least. The Lord grant 
that the ripe fruit may yet be seen ! 

" Tuesday, July 6. — A little before five o'clock, 
when we assembled for sermon, a young couple came 
before me to be married; and after being joined, I 
was pleased to find that they, and their friends who 
were along with them, proceeded immediately to 
the church, and took their seats with the congrega- 
tion ; and on my remarking to them afterwards how 
highly I approved of their conduct in this, ' Certainly,' 
replied the bridegroom, ' we should begin everything 
with God. And what happiness can be expected in 
the married state without Him ? ' I spoke to the 
people from Eph. v. 31, 33. And while I took 
occasion, from the passage, to state the duties which 
husbands and wives owe to each other, and which 
are enjoined on them by the Lord, I dwelt chiefly 
on the marriage relation established between Christ 
and the Church, and the duties and privileges which 
arise out of such a glorious relation. I trust the 
Lord has accompanied His word with a degree of 
power ; at least the countenance of the people 
indicated that the word had some effect upon them. 

" Wednesday, July 7. — About five in the evening 



184 



A STOEM IN ST. KILDA. 



I assembled the people for sermon ; and conceiving 
that possibly this might be the last opportunity I 
should have of addressing them, I took for a subject 
of lecture, 1 Thess. v. 12-23, from which I en- 
deavoured to point out to them the import of the 
various exhortations addressed to Christians in this 
passage, and to enforce them on their consideration. 
Towards the close of it, the poor people began to be 
much affected, and to weep aloud. My own feelings 
were overcome. I felt it difficult to speak. Indeed, 
the idea of a separation was most painful alike to 
speaker and to hearers. 

"Thursday, Jidy 8. — Yesterday the wind was 
pretty moderate and fair, but to-day it blows a 
perfect hurricane, so that we must be contented to 
remain in our present quarters till the weather 
become more favourable. This afforded the people 
and me another opportunity of meeting together in 
the house of God — an opportunity not the less 
valued that it was unexpected. I addressed them 
from Isa. xxxii. 2, 1 And a man shall be an hiding- 
place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest/ 
The state of the day suggested the subject to the 
speaker, and the same circumstance seemed to give 
it greater force with the hearers. A view of a St 
Kilda storm was certainly presented to us this day. 
The sea all in a commotion — its billows rising- 
mountains high, and dashing with fury against the 
lofty rocks all around, which oblige them in their 



WAITING AND WORKING. 185 

turn to retire and sink into their mother ocean — the 
columns of spray which issue out of this conflict, and 
overtop the highest mountains — all these present a 
sight awfully grand and sublime. The Lord, however, 
rides on the storm, and can say to the raging sea and 
furious wind, ' Peace, be still/ and immediately there 
is a calm. Nay, more, he can say so, and that with 
effect, to the storms and billows which threaten his 
Church, and she too enjoys a calm. Besides, the 
Church founded on himself as the Rock, like the 
island of St. Kilda, in the middle of ocean's storms, 
stands unmoved and unshaken by all the blasts and 
billows that assail it. 

"Friday, July 9. — The wind still continues to 
blow fresh, though less so than yesterday, and it is 
otherwise by no means fair for our purpose ; so that 
we must wait patiently the Lord's time. If he has 
more work for me to do here, I am willing to remain 
— and remain I must, till that work is done. Oh, 
may he overrule the detention for his glory! At 
the usual hour the people assembled for sermon, 
when I addressed them from Song of Solomon ii. 3, 
c I sat down under his shadow with great delight, 
and his fruit was sweet to my taste/ * I must say 
that the doctrine was sweet to my own taste, and I 
doubt not, that some of my hearers found it so too, 
in regard to themselves. 

"Monday, July 12. — In the evening I preached 
from John xii. 22, ' And I, if I be lifted up, will 



186 



HIS LAST SERMON IN ST. KILDA. 



draw all men unto me.' Conceiving this to be my 
last service among them, my object was to lead their 
views to the cross, and, if possible, to fix them there ; 
nay, to shut them up to this glorious object. This, 
I told them, was the great end of my ministrations 
among them, and I trusted would be his who was 
now set over them in the Lord. I besought them, 
therefore, to be anxious to make this use of his 
labours; and not to rest till they perceived and felt 
the power of attraction there is in the cross of Christ. 
Then, though we should part, this object would still 
unite us, and bring us together at last, to live on its 
fruits, and to celebrate its glories through endless 
ages. In conclusion, I told them that at this time I 
felt both joy and sorrow at the prospect of leaving 
them — joy that I left with them a gospel minister; 
and sorrow that on this very account I should in all 
probability see them no more. At this the whole 
house became a Bochim, and I found it impossible 
to refrain from taking my own share in this scene of 
weeping. After coming out of church, the poor 
people gathered around me, — 'And, oh!' said they, 
' are you never to see us again? Do you bid farewell 
for ever to St. Kilda? If so, the present is a more 
sorrowful parting than any we ever have had. Who 
knows, however, but the Lord may send you to us 
again?' I could make no other reply at the time 
(for my feelings had quite overcome me) but to 
address them in the words of the apostle, 1 Only let 



THE FINAL FAREWELL. 



187 



your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of 
Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be 
absent, I may hear of your affairs/ &c. (Phil. i. 27). 

" Island of Pabbay, Tuesday, July 13. — To 
speak of the feelings of mind with which the people 
of St. Kilda and I took leave of each other yesterday 
morning, is no easy matter. We had several separa- 
tions before now that were sufficiently affecting, but 
this exceeded them all. Tears were shed in abundance 
between us. The thought that in all probability we 
should not see one another again in the flesh, and 
that this would be the last interview we should have 
till we meet before the tribunal of Jesus, reached our 
hearts like an arrow. It was completely overwhelming ; 
it brought to my recollection what is said of Paul 
and the elders of Ephesus (Acts xx. 37, 38), that 
they all wept sore — sorrowing most of all for the 
words which he spoke, that they should see his face 
no more; and after his example, I prayed with them 
on the shore, and so we parted.'' 




CHAPTER X. 



EVANGELISTIC WORK —ANECDOTES — JOURNALS. 

HEEE was no man, in his day, whose labours 
in the service of the gospel abounded more 
than his. On Sabbath, when at home, 
he always delivered three sermons. Once a month 
he preached regularly in Inverness and in Dingwall, 
and, for a considerable time, statedly in Invergordon. 
In not a few places he was invariably present on 
communion occasions, usually preaching every day; 
besides giving to many ministers occasional and more 
limited assistance. He often went on excursions to 
various parts of the Highlands, preaching as he went. 
During three months of each year he preached, on an 
average, two sermons a day; and in no year of his 
life in Ross-shire did he preach fewer than three 
hundred sermons. He preached upwards of ten 
thousand times during the last thirty-six years of his 
life; and never delivered an unstudied discourse. 
This was not owing to his confining himself to a set 
of sermons which he constantly repeated; for he has 
left among his papers skeletons of discourses on 
almost every text on which a sermon could be 




EVANGELISTIC WORK. 



189 



written, besides notes of lectures on the Gospels, and 
other parts of Scripture. 

During the first years of his work in the north he 
always rode from place to place, the black mare which 
carried him being everywhere well known, and almost 
as readily recognised as her master. " If my mare 
could speak," he once said, "she would say, 'The 
gospel may be good, and to others it may do good, 
but as for me, I am ten times tired of it.' " Latterly 
a comfortable gig, drawn by his trusty " Paddy," 
conveyed him on his frequent journeyings. He was 
fully more careful about "Paddy's" comfort than 
about his own. He has been known, oftener than 
once, after a fatiguing journey, to use the scythe in 
mowing a supper for the horse before looking out for 
a supper for himself. His " Paddy " deserved all the 
care expended on him, for, like the horse of another 
evangelist, he had done more for the gospel than all 
the mitred bishops in the land. 

The Lord's care of his life and health throughout 
his many journeys was most remarkable. 

On his way to preach to a congregation in Moray- 
shire, he reached the ford of the Findhorn when the 
river was in flood. He was urged by friends not to 
attempt the crossing; but a congregation waited to 
hear the gospel, and there was no other way of 
reaching them, and so he resolved to try the ford. 
He had scarcely entered it, when both horse and 
rider were carried down by the stream. He kept 



190 



ANECDOTES. 



his saddle till the water shallowed on a sand bank 
in the middle of the river, a considerable distance 
below where he had entered it. There the horse lay 
stranded, till ropes were thrown across by the people 
who were watching on the bank, and pulled both 
rider and horse safely to land. 

Approaching Auldearn on a winter night, he was 
met in the darkness by two men, one of whom seized 
his horse's bridle, and the other, grasping his arm, 
demanded his watch and purse, offering him the 
robber's usual stern alternative. " This was not the 
reception I expected/' he said, " on coming to preach 
at Auldearn." On hearing this, one of the men 
immediately said to his companion, Ci This is Mac- 
do nald, we had better let him alone;" and they 
suddenly disappeared in the darkness. This was not 
the first time that conscience scared even a robber 
from harming a servant of the Lord. 

Having caught cold on one of his journeys, and 
refusing rest in order to employ some means of cure, 
he became at last seriously ill. The pores of his 
skin so closed that the usual means of producing 
perspiration entirely failed, and to procure this was 
deemed essential to his recovery. Hector Holm 
heard of his illness, and went to visit him. After 
conversation with him, and discovering what was 
required in order to his cure, he went about among 
the houses around the manse, and asked the inmates 
to assemble to hear a lecture from the minister. 



ANECDOTES. 



191 



The people immediately gathered. All this was 
done unknown to Mr. Macdonald. When the kitchen 
of the manse was full, Hector went to the bedroom, 
and told the minister that the people were assembled 
and were expecting a lecture. " I cannot rise to 
speak to them/' he said. " But will it not be hard/' 
Hector asked, "to send them away without 'a word?'" 
" But how can I manage to speak to them in my 
present state V Hector, seeing that he had begun 
to consider how this opportunity could be used, 
suggested that he should sit up in bed, wrapped in 
blankets, the people sitting in the passage outside 
the room, and that he should read and expound a 
passage of Scripture. To this he at once agreed ; 
and so the people came, and the minister began to 
address them. Becoming interested in his subject, 
his usual fervour warmed him up; and before the 
lecture was concluded he was wet with copious 
perspiration. He then lay down, slept quietly all 
night, and awoke quite well in the morning. Hector 
used to say that he was the best physician Mr. 
Macdonald ever had. A dose of preaching was the 
only prescription he gave. This his patient had 
often found to be a delight to his heart, but on this 
occasion it was a cure to his body also. 

During his frequent travels he came in contact 
with all descriptions of persons, and, owing to his 
unconsciousness and tact, could easily adapt himself 
to all their various phases of character without 



192 



ANECDOTES. 



compromising bis position as a minister, or laying 
his own peculiarity aside. 

On board a steamer he once encountered a young 
Oxonian, who, being in Scotland, was disposed to 
regard himself as an impersonation of refinement and 
learning moving amidst barbarism and ignorance. 
He was inveighing against the barbarous jargon 
spoken on the north side of the Tweed, and wished 
the group of listeners to whom he was exhibiting 
to understand, that the English language, in its 
purity, could not be spoken out of Oxford, except by 
one who had learnt it there. A little after, the 
polite Oxonian uttered an oath. Mr. Macdonald 
turned to him at once, and said, " Where is the 
purity of the English language now? I did not 
expect it would be polluted in passing through the 
lips of an Oxonian." 

Travelling in a stage-coach with Major on 

one of his journeys to the south, after having taken a 
pinch of snuff he offered the box to the officer. " I 
am not given to these minor vices," he said in a 
very supercilious and haughty tone, at the same time 
uttering an oath. " Of course not," Mr. Macdonald 
rejoined, as he quietly put the box in his pocket, 
" the major vices better suit your taste." 

While crossing Kessock ferry along with the 
minister of Killearnan, among their fellow-passengers 
was a drunken exciseman, at whose feet a dog was 
lying. The gauger, observing the ministers, raised 



ANECDOTES. 



193 



the dog, and holding it on his arms, went up to Mr. 
Kennedy and said, "Will you christen this child 
Mr. Kennedy, horrified, at once ordered him away. 
He then presented the dog to Mr. Macdonald, who 
immediately rose up and said, " Do you acknowledge 
yourself the father of what you now present for 
baptism V The exciseman, drunk as he was, saw 
that he was caught in his own snare. Looking 
wildly at the ministers, he flung the dog into the 
sea, and skulked back to his seat amidst the jeers of 
all who were on board. 

A farmer once said to him, after hearing him 
preach, "Dr. Macdonald, you are the preacher for 
me, you never weary us with long sermons." The 
doctor, who saw at once that its brevity was regarded 
as the great recommendation of the sermon, said, " I 

fear much, Mr. R , if you should ever happen to get 

into heaven, you would soon be disposed to say, like 
the little boys in school, 'Please, master, let me out.'" 

Quite unintentional, but less doubtful, was the 
compliment paid to his preaching by one of the 
Inverness magistrates. While a certain doctor ruled 
within the domain of the Established Church in the 
Highland capital, he was careful, so far as his power 
extended, to exclude from the High Church such 
preaching as would contrast with the polished 
platitudes and the poisoned sweets which he him- 
self dealt out to his listless hearers. Somehow the 
wild man of Ferintosh found access to the pulpit 

(103) 



194 



ANECDOTES. 



of the High Church one day. The magistrates, as 
usual, were present. One of them, who was always 
accustomed to take a quiet nap during the sermon, 
and who never dreamt of the bailies being furnished 
with easy chairs for any other purpose, found himself 
not so comfortable as usual on that day. On coming- 
out of church, he was asked what he thought of the 
minister of Ferintosh. " The fellow," he said, with 
great indignation, " did not allow me sleep a wink 
all day." This was the only compliment to his preach- 
ing to which his friends ever heard himself referring. 

Amiable though he was, and prone to too great 
facility, he could, when occasion required, hold his 
ground very firmly, and rise superior to all the 
influence which might be employed to sway him. 
During one of his tours in Lochaber, he was invited 
by Lochiel to spend a night in his mansion. Besides 
the clergyman, there was a large party of guests. 
Between nine and ten o'clock, card-playing having 
been proposed, Mr. Macdonald at once rose, and 
going up to Lochiel, asked him whether he was to 
hold family worship. " Oh, no," he said, " I cannot 
think of that to-night." " And will you not allow 
me to engage in worship for you ?" " Not to-night/' 
his host replied ; " it would give offence to my 
visitors." " If not," the minister said, " I must go 
away; for I cannot remain where my Master is 
denied." Lochiel, anxious that there should be no 
spot on his Highland hospitality, but quite resolved 



JOURNAL. 



195 



against worship, urged him to remain. But he was 
quite as unyielding as his host, and left the house at 
dead of night ; and walked several miles ere lie 
reached a place of shelter. 

Of all his journals in which he recorded the 
experiences and results of his evangelistic tours only 
fragments remain. But " the record " of all his 
labours is " on high/' and " the day" shall fully 
disclose their results. 

The first extract describes a preaching tour under- 
taken at the request of the Scottish Missionary 
Society. It is specially interesting as containing 
notices of his last interviews with his father. 

"Monday, March 1, 1830. — Left home after 
dinner, drank tea with Mr. Sage, crossed at eight 
o'clock to Invergordon, stopped at H. Holm's, spent 
a comfortable night with him. 

" Tuesday, March 2. — Left H. Holm's at eight 
A.M. Breakfasted with Mr. Laing. Settled with 
him for stipend. Preached at Kilmuir for the 
Scottish Missionary Society, in Gaelic, from 1 John 
i. 1-4, and English, Acts xxviii. 28 — collection 
£5, 4s. lOd. Dined in the evening at Mrs. Hay 
M'Kenzie's. Spent the evening very agreeably with 
herself, and son, and daughter-in-law. Had family 
worship at nine, at which all about the household 
and some from the neighbourhood attended — slept 
at Mr. Matheson's. 

" Wednesday, March 3. — Left Kilmuir at seven , 



190 



TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. 



A.M. Breakfasted with Dr. Mackintosh, and was 
refreshed by seeing him. In the forenoon crossed 
to Dornoch, with the expectation of preaching for 
the Scottish Missionary Society; but Mr. Kennedy 
having had a public collection the Sabbath preceding 
in his church, did not deem it proper to come upon 
the people so soon again for another collection ; 
therefore agreed that I should preach in his church 
for that purpose on my return from Caithness. The 
25 th curt, was accordingly fixed. Proceeded after 
dinner to Rhives — Mr. Gunn not at home when I 
arrived but appeared about supper time. In the 
evening the house filled with people from the neigh- 
bourhood. I addressed them at family worship at 
considerable length from the chapter read. The 
people seemed much impressed, and to receive what 
they heard as anxious to improve the day of small 
things. 

" Thursday, March 4. — Left Rhives at an early 
hour, and breakfasted at the manse of Clyne. Im- 
mediately after breakfast Mr. M'Kay, having collected 
his people for a diet of catechizing, asked me to 
address them. Gave them a short discourse from 
Ps. cxix. 1 8, and then proceeded to Helmsdale, where 
I had fixed to preach at two o'clock. Here a large 
congregation were assembled. I addressed them in 
Gaelic from John i. 4, and in English from Ps. 
xxxvi. 7- Collection for the Scottish Missionary 
Society about six guineas. After dining at Mr. 



VISIT TO HIS FATHER. 



197 



M'Kay s (the merchant) with Messrs. Ross and 
Campbell, proceeded in the evening, with Mr. Camp- 
bell, to the manse of Kildonan. Mr. Campbell gave 
me two guineas, one from himself, and one in lieu of 
a collection from his people, for the Society. His 
parish being depopulated, he could not hold out to 
me any encouragenent in the way of a collection. 
Felt quite at home in his house; his mother-in-law 
is a humble and judicious Christian. 

" Monday, March 8. — Left Kildonan manse 
Friday forenoon, and arrived at Reay in the even- 
ing. Mr. and Mrs. M'Kay seemed overjoyed at my 
entering the parlour, and I felt no less so at seeing 
them. On Saturday, took a trip to see my father 
— found people assembled for prayer in his house 
when I arrived — and joined with them in the duty. 
This prayer-meeting, I was happy to learn, was 
some time ago transferred to his house from another 
place, owing to his inability to attend it elsewhere, 
and is now regularly once a fortnight kept in his 
house. He moderates the meeting, and points out 
the psalms to be sung, and the chapters to be read, 
though he long ago lost the use of his sight. I was 
pleased to hear him do so on the present occasion. 
After the people dismissed I had a long conversation 
with him, and was happy to find his mind entire, 
his spirits lively, and his faith firm on the rock. 
' Many a shake does my faith get/ he said, ' but it 
is my comfort that the rock on which it rests cannot 



198 



INTERVIEW WITH HIS FATHER. 



be shaken.' Yesterday, preached in Gaelic without 
doors to an immense crowd, from 1 Cor. xv. 1—4, 
and in English within, from Hab. iii. 2. A spirit 
of division reigns in this parish at present, people 
against minister, and minister against people- 
Neither party has adopted the proper method with 
the other. The cloven-foot has got in; the Lord 
hasten the day when it shall be thrust out, none 
but He can heal the breach. The people, however 
(even those who generally absent themselves from 
church), seemed to hear me with attention; and I 
believe the gospel would yet reclaim the absentees 
from ordinances, and have the effect of restoring 
matters to harmony and order. This day, I called 
in the forenoon at Sandside; had some discussion 
with Major Innes respecting Irving's views of the 
human nature of Christ; found, on referring to some 
passages of Scripture on the subject, that he yielded 
to its authority, and was satisfied that Irving's views 
were wrong:. 

" In the afternoon, went again to see my father, 
and spent nearly two hours with him, much to my 
satisfaction. Among other things he said, i The 
mountains of Bether are at times covered with mist, 
so that the traveller does not see his way; but on 
the land of promise which lies beyond them rests 
no mist; and Jesus is my guide to that happy 
land/ 

" Thursday, March 11. — On Tuesday, preached 



TREACHES TO HIS FIRST FLOCK. 



190 



afc Strathy, in the Parliamentary Church — in Gaelic 
from Ps. lxxxix. 1 5, and in English, from Rom. 
iii. 22. The house quite crowded. After the service, 
a collection was made for the Scottish Missionary 
Society, amounting to £3, 18s. — considered fair in 
such a place. — On Wednesday, preached at Farr for 
the Scottish Missionary Society, in Gaelic from Isa. 
lxiii. 1, and English, from Ps. cxix. 18 — collection 
nearly £7. Came back in the evening, after dining 
with Mr. Mackenzie, to Strathy and slept at Mr. 
M'Gillivray's. This morning breakfasted at Big- 
house. Major and Mrs. M'Kay received me very 
kindly, and I was happy to visit a dwelling in 
which I acted as tutor thirty-five years ago; but it 
threw a shade of melancholy over my spirits to find 
that its old inhabitants are gone, and that only one 
out of a family of twenty is now to be seen within 
those walls. Oh, the wasting hand of time ! After 
breakfast, preached at the new Meeting-house at 
Strath haladale, once a part of my mission in Caith- 
ness; saw but few faces in the congregation w T hom I 
could recognise as old acquaintances ; my heart 
warmed, however, towards the young of the flock 
which once were mine, and I felt much freedom in 
addressing them. After sermon, returned to Big- 
house with Major M'Kay, who with his family 
attended, and spent the evening very comfortably 
under his roof; had family worship and a lecture, 
at which all about the house attended. Mr. M'Gilli* 



£00 



SERMONS IN CAITHNESS. 



vray and his sister, who accompanied me both to Farr 
and Strathhaladale, stopped here all night. 

" Saturday evening, March 1 3. — Yesterday, came 
to Reay to breakfast. In the forenoon, called on 
Major Innes; found him frank and kind — hope well 
of him. In the afternoon, called on my father — 
found him in his usual spirits; his bodily strength, 
he says, is decaying gradually ; but though he cannot 
say the inner man is growing, he hopes the Lord 
gives it what food keeps it in life. 

" This afternoon, baptized a child of Captain 
M'Donald's, Major Innes' nephew and heir ; the 
Major and his lady attended; I felt freedom in the 
service and enjoyed the occasion. Spent the rest of 
the day in my room ; the Lord prepare me for 
to-morrow's work. 

"Saturday, March 20. — This week, had my 
hands full of work, for which I should be thankful. 
The Lord gave me physical strength. On Sabbath, 
preached at Reay, in Gaelic in the open air, from 
1 John i. 1—4, and in English in church, from James 
v. 19, 20, when a collection was made for the 
Scottish Missionary Society amounting to £10, odds. 
Felt considerable freedom in both languages, and 
particularly in English. During the Gaelic service 
the wind, being boisterous, molested speaker and 
hearers not a little. In the evening, addressed the 
children of the Sabbath school, which is conducted by 
the teacher, and seems to be in a thriving condition* 



SERMONS AND COLLECTIONS. 



201 



" Monday. — Preached at Thurso in Gaelic and 
English for the Society — collection £13, odds — 
Gaelic from Ps. cxix. 18, English, Isa. lxiii. 1. 
After dining at the manse, went in the evening to 
Buckies. 

Tuesday. — Preached at Watten for the Society, 
from Rom. v. 2 — collection £8, 10s. 6d. After 
dining with the worthy family at the manse, went 
down to Wick so far on my way to Latheron, where 
(D.V.) I preach next day. Spent the evening very 
comfortably with Mr. Phin. 

" Wednesday. — Started early for Latheron, where 
I arrived to breakfast ; distance eighteen miles. 
Preached here to a crowded audience in Gaelic from 
1 Cor. xi. 10, and in English from Isa. lxiii. 1 — 
collection for the Society £12, odds. 

" Thursday morning came to Halkirk ; distance 
twenty miles. Preached there for the Society, in 
Gaelic from 1 Tim, ii. 5, 6, in English from Ps. 
xxxvi. 7 — collection £9, odds. Stopped all night 
with good Mr. Munro, and enjoyed his society 
much. 

" Friday. — Came to Buckies to breakfast; after 
parting with my friends there about eleven o'clock, 
proceeded to the parish of Reay. Examined a 
Society school in a district of the parish ; called 
on my father, and got to the manse about six 
o'clock P.M. 

" Saturday. — This day, called on my father for 



202 



VISITS BREAD ALB AXE. 



the last time; spent some time with him. We were 
mutually affected at parting, not knowing whether 
we should see one another again on this side Jordan; 
he sent his thousand blessings to my wife and famity, 
and ' May we meet/ he said, ' where we shall not 
part/ The parting with my dear aged parent has 
made me rather dull this evening for study; but the 
thought of meeting him in a better place comforted 
me. 

"Saturday, March 27. — Preached at Reay, Sab- 
bath last, in Gaelic from Rom. viii. 29, English, 
Isa. xx viii. 12. Left Reay on Monday morning, 
came in the evening to Kildonan. — Tuesday, preached 
at Helmsdale. — Wednesday, at Clyne. — Thursday, 
at Dornoch, and arrived here safely this afternoon. 
Found wife and family well. Deo gloria." 

The following notes refer to a visit to his favourite 
Breadalbane in 1835, after a severe illness. The 
work done by him then, which to him was the 
abridged exercise of an invalid, would be accounted 
more than enough for the healthier days of ordinary 
men : — 

u Left home on Monday, September 7, accom- 
panied by my son James ; rested and dined at 
Inverness, and got to Moy at night. 

" Tuesday, Sept. 8. — Started from Moy at seven 
A.M. Breakfasted at the Bridge of Carr, and stopped 
an hour or so at Lynvuilg. Got to Kingussie by 
three. Remained there all night ; preached at five 



JOURNAL. 



203 



to a pretty large congregation assembled in church, 
my arrival having been looked for some time in the 
afternoon. Preached from Heb. iv. 1 1 in Gaelic, 
and a short word in English from Ps. xxv. 1 ] . 
Notwithstanding my late illness, had cause of great 
thankfulness that I felt not the worse, either in body 
or mind, for the service. The day wet and learning 
almost throughout. 

" Wednesday, Sept. 9. — Started from Kingussie 
after an early breakfast ; fed at Dalwhinnie ; dined 
at Dalnacardoch, and got that evening to the Inn 
of Coiseville, eighteen miles from Dalnarcardoch, and 
forty-five from Kingussie. Owing to the hilliness of 
the road for a great part of the way, both the horse 
and driver seemed pretty tired when we reached 
Coiseville. The driver, after swallowing a little 
bread and milk, immediately threw himself into his 
bed and fell into a profound sleep, out of which the 
sound of singing and prayer performed at his side, 
and to a houseful of people, could not move him — 
James remained still as a statue. 

"Thursday, Sept. 10. — The morning being very 
wet, we remained at our quarters till after breakfast, 
when we started, and arrived at Lawers by twelve — 
distance ten miles. Margaret and her husband were 
happy to see us, and the people of the place no less 
so — a people once dear to me. I felt equally glad 
at seeing them all, minister and people ; and had 
great cause of thankfulness that we thus arrived 



204 



WORK AT LAWERS. 



safely at our destination, without injury sustained, 
or accident occurinc*. It being the fast for the com- 
m union at Lawers, I agreed to take the Gaelic, and 
preached from Rom. vii. 9 — ' For I was alive with- 
out the law once.' kc. Mr. Elder, of Killin, preached 
in English; his discourse evangelical, and delivered 
with considerable earnestness. 

" Friday, Sept. 11. — Preached at four o'clock at 
Ardeonag, a spot once highly favoured and endeared 
to me by various considerations. The people very 
attentive, and seemed to listen with feelings which 
would remind one of former times. Ah ! Ardeonag ! 
would that these times returned ! I preached from 
Isa. xlvi. 5 — ( To whom will ye liken me; frc. 

" Saturday, Sept. 12. — Preached the half of the 
day in the tent at Lawers ; Mr. Donald Mackenzie, 
lately from the north, preached the other half ; his 
discourse, for clearness and point, was far beyond 
my anticipations, his prayer excellent, distinguished 
alike by earnestness and unction. My discourse was 
founded on Isa. liv. 17, last clause — 'Their right- 
eousness is of me, saith the Lord/ The audience 
numerous and attentive, and several individuals 
deeply affected. 

" Sabbath, September 1 3. — Preached the action 
sermon in English, from Rom. iii. 25 — 'The right- 
eousness of God declared,' &c. Felt much liberty 
during the whole service. In the evening concluded 
the service in the tent by an address founded on 



RECRUITED BY PREACHING. 



205 



Isa. lv. 1 — 'Let him that has no money come.' 
Many of the hearers evidently much affected ; the 
Lord undoubtedly was present, for his word had a 
melting effect. 

u Monday, Sept. 1 4. — Preached in Gaelic from Rom. 
vii. 14 — ' For we know that the law is spiritual, but 
I am carnal/ &c. Had Mr. David Campbell, of 
Glenlyon, for my colleague, whose discourse was plain, 
but lively and rousing. The people listened during 
the whole day with deep attention, and many among 
them discovered symptoms of true concern under the 
word. The Lord revive us as in the days of old ! 
During the whole of the solemn occasion I was thus 
enabled to preach a discourse every day, and this, 
owing to the previous state of my health, I preferred 
to taking any whole day. I found upon trial, too, 
that it suited me; and what thanks can I render to 
the Lord for it, that I feel as well after the work is 
over as before it began ! 

" I felt humbled and thankful at meeting several 
individuals during the occasion who mentioned their 
having received their first impressions of truth under 
my former labours in this place ; from ten to twelve 
of this description spoke to me, and felt it their duty 
to communicate the fact to me, thinking, I suppose, 
that it might be some incredulity of mine on this 
subject that made me give up coming to Breadalbane 
for some years past. I was glad to learn, however, 
that they and others continue to walk in the truth. 



206 



VISITS GLENLYON. 



"Tuesday, Sept 15. — Being engaged to preach in 
Glenlyon on Wednesday, a place some years ago 
highly favoured with an outpouring of the Spirit, 
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, Lawers, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Campbell, of Glenlyon, and we, set out this forenoon 
for the Glen. We took the Fortingall road, which 
was rather a round, but preferable upon the whole 
for a gig or carriage ; the road in some parts of it 
rather hilly, and in others rather rugged and stony. 
We arrived at the Manse of Glenlyon about five p.m. 
— distance from Lawers by this route eighteen miles. 
The Glen throughout presents much of the picturesque 
and romantic in its appearance. On our way we 
called on the minister of Fortingall, who seemed to 
have taken the visit w r ell, and he asked me to preach 
a week day to his people, if I could not give a 
Sabbath. Eighteen years ago this gentleman vowed 
that I should never preach in his parish — wonders 
never cease ! I agreed readily enough to preach in 
his church on Friday afternoon. 

" Wednesday, Sept. 1 6. — Preached in the church of 
Glenlyon from Isa. lv. 3 — ' Hear and your souls shall 
live/ to a very crowded house. Many of the hearers 
were in tears. The scene reminded me in some 
measure of the days of other years in this place. 

"Thursday, Sept 17. — Starting from Glenlyon 
at ten, accompanied by the minister of Lawers and 
his wife, we made for Killin, where I was under 
promise to preach, and arrived there between one 



EAGER HEARERS. 



207 



and two p.m. The service commenced at two. The 
church crowded; preached from Heb. iii. 19; felt 
much liberty; the people very attentive. It is pleas- 
ing to think that the parish is favoured with an 
active and faithful pastor in Mr. Elder. After ser- 
mon, and taking some dinner at the manse, we came 
to Lawers in the evening. 

" Friday, Sept. 18. — Preached this afternoon at 
Fortingall, agreeably to previous engagement ; the 
church quite crowded, and the audience remarkably 
attentive ; some were in tears. I preached from 
Rom. iii. 22 — 'For there is no difference/ After 
takino* some refreshment at Mr. Macdonald's, the 
clergyman of the parish, we i^eturned to Lawers in 
the evening. 

"Saturday, Sept. 19. — Spent this day in occa- 
sional walks, and preparation for the duties of to- 
morrow. 

".Monday, Sept. 21. — Yesterday preached at 
Lawers to an immense congregation; people assembled 
from all quarters, and shearers who had gone a few 
days before from Breadalbane to the neighbourhood 
of Dunkeld and Perth, forty and fifty miles, came 
back, and returned immediately after the Sabbath 
was over. Several of this description did the same 
at the time of the communion. And what is not 
less remarkable, their employers gave them liberty. 
I preached yesterday in English — for the English 
was first — from Ps. xxv. 11. Also at five o'clock 



208 



JOURNAL. 



(the people having assembled in crowds at that hour 
craving for sermon), from John vi. 67 — f Will ye also 
go away?' The congregations at both times very 
much affected, and especially during the latter service. 
At eight o'clock, when we were to have family 
worship, the house was crowded with people. I read 
and~ lectured on Ps. cxxvi. During the last verses 
almost all were in tears. The Lord has not left 
Breadalbane yet. I felt much affected at parting 
with many of the people, after the services of the day 
were over. The feelings of sorrow were mutual. 

" This day we proceeded to Kinlochranoch, accom- 
panied by Mr. Campbell and Margaret, and arrived 
there about five — distance from Lawers twenty- two 
miles. Here I am to preach to-morrow. 

" Tuesday, Sept. 22. — Preached at Kinlochranoch 
in Mr. Macdonald's church, and notwithstanding the 
day being boisterous, with rain and wind throughout, 
the church was quite crowded. I preached in English 
from Isa, vi. 63, Gaelic from Rom. viii. 2. After 
dining at Mr. Macdonald's, we came in the evening 
to Mrs. Stewart's, Crossmount, three miles from 
Kinlochranoch. Mrs. S. is a well-disposed and an 
accomplished woman. Here Margaret and her hus- 
band and I spent our last night together. 

" Wednesday, Sept. 23. — The wind and rain of 
yesterday werfe extraordinary, and this morning 
scarcely less so ; nevertheless, James and I proceeded 
at seven for Dalnacardoch, I being under engagement 



BREADALBANE IN 1836. 



209 



to preach at Kingussie at six in the evening. We 
breakfasted at Dalnacardoch, and arrived at Kingussie 
by four. Preached at six o'clock in Gaelic from 
Rom. xiv. 12, and in English from Rom. iii. 27 — 
'Where is boasting?' Distance travelled to-day, 
thirty-nine miles, and neither man nor horse fatigued 
— what cause of thanks! 

" Thursday, Sept. 24. — Left Kingussie at ten this 
forenoon, and preached in the church of Rothiemurchus 
at one. English from Rom. iii., and Gaelic, Rom. 
viii. 3. Duke of Bedford, the Marchioness of Aber- 
corn, &c, in church. Felt liberty notwithstanding 
the presence of such personages, because I felt as in 
the presence of God, and felt that these were but 
fellow- worms. After the service baptized a child to 
Mr. Grant, the minister at the manse, and passed 
the evening at Lynvuilg. 

Friday, Sept. 25. — Preached this day on my way 
home at the church of Duthil — in Gaelic from 
2 Peter i. 10, in English from Ps. cxix. 11. Came 
in the evening to Moy. Thanks to the God of all 
my mercies that I feel much better after such labours 
than when I left home!" 

In the following year he again visited Breadalbaue, 
and thus recounts his labours on that occasion : — 

"Thursday, Sejit. 1, 1836. — Left home accom- 
panied by James, my son. Preached in the evening 
in the East Church, Inverness, in Gaelic, from P.i. 
xlii. 2 — e My soul thirsteth for God/ &c 

(103) 14 



£10 



STRATHSPEY. 



" Friday, Sept. 2. — Started in the morning for 
Rothiemurchus, Strathspey, where I am to assist at 
the communion. Breakfasted at Moy, fed at Bridge 
of Carr, and dined and stopped all night at Lynvuilg. 

"Saturday, Sept 3. — Preached at Rothiemurchus 
in Gaelic and in English from Luke vii. 47 — 'Her 
sins are forgiven; for she loved much! Each ser- 
vice conducted in the open air. The weather pretty 
comfortable, 

" Monday, Sept. 5. — Yesterday preached at the 
tent to an immense and very attentive audience, 
from Heb. ix. 26 — ' But now once in the end of the 
world hath he appeared to put away sin/ &c. A 
solemn stillness prevailed during the whole day, and 
several of the people were in tears. This especially 
under the concluding exhortation. To-day preached 
in Gaelic at the tent, from John xv. 2 — 'Every 
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, 
and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it' 
&c. Preached the English in church, after the Gaelic 
was concluded, from Rom. viii. 33 — ' It is God that 
justifieth/ kc. Had the Duke of Bedford and his 
family for my hearers. Dined with the duke, by 
invitation, in the afternoon. Found his grace kind, 
complaisant, and affable. There appears to be some 
good thino- in him towards the Lord God of Israel. 
Oh, that there were more of his sort ! He was 
pleased to express himself as highly gratified with 
the sermon I had preached that day — a compliment 



THE DUKE'S COMPLIMENT. 



211 



which, no doubt, afforded a morsel to Mr. Self in 
me. At the same time, I must say that I felt more 
happy at the idea of his having orthodoxy and reli- 
gion enough to approve of the doctrine. Upon the 
whole, I think this day lias been attended with some 
power. The Lord grant that this may yet appear 
to have been the case. I enjoyed more than usual 
liberty in each language, and many of my hearers 
seemed to be much impressed. 

" Tuesday, Sept. G. — Left Kothiemurchus this morn- 
ing, and came to Kingussie to breakfast. Preached 
in the church in the forenoon to a large congrega- 
tion, many of whom followed us from Kothiemurchus. 
Text in Gaelic, Gal. vi. 1 5 — ' Neither circumcision 
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new 
creature.' English, John xv. 5 — 'Without me ye 
can do nothing/ After an early dinner at the manse, 
proceeded to Dalwhinnie, under heavy rain all the 
way. Stopped there all night. Had a lecture in the 
evening with the family, and some strangers that 
happened to be present. 

" Wednesday, Sept. 7. — Proceeded in the morning 
to Dalnacardoch. Breakfasted there, and had family 
worship and a lecture. Fed at Tummel Bridge, and 
proceeded to Fortingall. Dined with Mr. M'Donald, 
the minister. Promised to give him a week-day 
preaching before T left the country. Started after 
dinner for Lawers, where we arrived about seven. 
Found friends well, and were mutually happy at 



212 



BREAD ALB ANE. 



seeing each other. The Lord be praised for his good- 
ness ! 

" Thursday, Sept. 8. — This being the fast for the 
communion, Mr. Elder, Killin, preached in the fore- 
noon in English, both a lengthy and pithy discourse, 
from Ps. 1. 5 ; and I in Gaelic, after the English, 
from Eph. i. 19 — ' The exceeding greatness of his 
power to us-ward who believe.' Was glad to see 
again some old faces before me, on whom, years ago, 
the word preached had a melting influence, and who 
appeared still not to be impervious to impressions. 
After the Gaelic service w r as over, Margaret's little 
baby was baptized in the presence of the congrega- 
tion, and called Georgina, after her grandmother and 
my once dear wife. The annunciation of the name 
wakened up associations in my mind which had 
well-nigh overpowered my feelings. 

" Saturday, Sept. 10. — Yesterday afternoon 
preached at Ardeonaig from Ps. xvi. 8 — ' I have set 
the Lord always before me.' The congregation 
pretty attentive. Ardeonaig was once a favoured 
spot. I fear it is not now what it was. This day 
preached in English, in the church, from Eph. ii. 1 — 
' And you hath he quickened,' &c. ; and afterwards 
in Gaelic at the tent, from Ps. lxxii. 6 — * He shall 
come down like rain, &c. Felt considerable liberty 
in each language, and several of the hearers under 
each discourse were deeply affected. 

Monday, Sept. ] 2. — Yesterday preached the 



EBENEZEK. 



213 



Gaelic action sermon, from Rom. viii. 3 — • For what 
the law could not da t \ Szc, c God sending his own 
Son' &c. The congregation immense ; not under 
7000. The attention deep and fixed. Every face 
among the vast multitude gave indications of earnest- 
ness and solemnity in hearing the word, and not a 
few were in tears almost the whole time. I hope 
the word has been accompanied with power to some. 
This day preached at the tent to a congregation 
somewhat less than yesterday, but larger than any 
that has been seen here on the Monday of a Com- 
munion since September 1817 — a Monday of great 
awakening, and, indeed, a clay of Messiah's power. 
This day reminded us of it in some measure. There 
were many tears shed, and much weeping and cry- 
ing. Text, Isa. xxxv. 10 — ' For the ransomed of 
the Lord shall return,' &c. The solemn work being 
now over, I would here set up my Ebenezer and 
say, ' Hitherto the Lord has helped/ I should praise 
him for his preserving providence and supporting 
grace, and especially for covering my numerous faults 
and failings from the eyes of men, and enabling me 
to speak to fellow-creatures as if nothing stood be- 
tween Him and me. Blessed be his name, that 
though He has often set my secret sins in the light 
of his own countenance, he has not as yet set them 
before the eyes of man. I should now turn my face 
northward, and feel anxious to get home ; but of 
this, I see, I must not think for another week. I 



214 



GLENLYON. 



have several pressing applications to preach in some 
parishes in the neighbourhood during the week, and 
to remain here over Sabbath ; and I feel I must 
yield. The Lord prepare me for the work before me, 
and give effect to his own word ! 

" Tuesday, Sept. 1 3. — This day preached at Killin, 
in Gaelic, from John iv. 10 — 1 If thou kneivest the 
gift of God' &c. ; and in English, from Isa. lv. 2 — 
' Eat ye that which is good' The church, though 
large, was pretty much crowded, and the congrega- 
tion very attentive. One here and there appeared 
to be affected. The Lord grant the impressions may 
be salutary and permanent ! In the evening, James 
and I drove over to Glenlyon, accompanied by 
Messrs. Duncan and David Campbell and their 
wives, and arrived at our comfortable quarters there 
by eight. 

" Wednesday, Sept. 1 4. — This day preached in 
Glenlyon Church, from Gen. vi. 22 — ' Thus did 
Noah ; according to all that God commanded huh/ 
fcc. The church was crowded ; many others being 
there besides the people of the glen. This was once 
a highly favoured spot, and I felt that the Lord has 
not forsaken it yet. Many of the people were 
deeply impressed, and some of them, awakened twenty 
years ago, not less so. I understand that Mr. David 
Campbell's labours here of late have been blessed to 
not a few among them, and especially to some young 
people — a circumstance w r hich makes the congre- 



FORTINGALL. 



215 



gation extremely reluctant to part with their 
minister to Inverness, and in which they are to be 
excused. 

"Thursday, Sept. 15. — This day preached at 
Fortingall to a large congregation. The church was 
crowded almost to suffocation ; so much so, that at 
one time we thought of pitching our tent without 
doors ; but the day threatening rain, we remained as 
we were, and the doors being kept open, several that 
were without could hear very conveniently. I 
preached in English from Rom. vi. 21 — ' What fruit 
had ye then/ &c. ; and in Gaelic from Gal. vi. 15 — 
' Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncir- 
cumcision, but a new creature.' The congregation 
seemed to listen with deep attention, and many of 
them with an eagerness that indicated a thirst to 
hear the word and an anxiety to know the truth. 
The Lord bless his own word to these poor people! 
1 had much freedom, and felt much impressed with 
the consideration of their need and danger, while 
addressing it to them. After dining with Mr McDon- 
ald the minister, who is certainly a hospitable 
gentleman, the ministers of Lawers and Glenlyon, 
with their wives, who had accompanied us all the 
way, arrived with us at the manse of Lawers about 
eight in the evening. Blessed be God for health, 
strength, protection, and preservation from injury 
and accidents ! Every night since we arrived here, 
the people of the place gathered in crowds to family 



216 



LAWERS. 



worship ; and during the sacrament we had to meet 
every evening in the church, where we had crowded 
audiences. I believe these exercises have been 
blessed to not a few, and the people's anxiety to 
attend them is certainly a token for good. 

"Saturday, Sept 17. — Spent yesterday and this 
day at Lawers with Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, being 
the only leisure time we had together since w r e came 
to this place. Enjoyed and stood in need of a day 
or two's rest and recreation, after so many days' 
incessant labour. Besides, had the work of the Sab- 
bath before me, which required preparation of mind 
and body. 

"M onday, Sept. 1 9. — Yesterday forenoon preached 
both in Gaelic and English to a large crowd, not 
under 4000, who had assembled from different 
parishes round, and whose eagerness to hear the word 
could be read in almost every face. The aspect of 
the congregation was both interesting and affecting. 
I preached in English from Matt, xi 20 — 'Then 
began, he to upbraid the cities' fcc ; and in Gaelic 
from Ezek. xxxvii. o, 6 — ' Thus saith the Lord God 
unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter 
into you, and ye shall live,' Szc. Enjoyed consider- 
able liberty, and felt unusually impressed with the 
importance of the promise, and the necessity of its 
fulfilment to many present. Not a few were all the 
time in tears, while the eyes of others glistened with 
joy. The word had truly a melting effect. At five 



HOME. 



217 



in the evening I preached to the people in the 
church. We were quite crowded; many of those 
who had come from a distance and heard during the 
day having remained. I addressed them from Gal. 
vi. 7, 8 — ' Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap,' &c. The subject had a rousing effect ; 
and it being understood that it was to be my last 
discourse, many were, no doubt, deeply affected on 
that account. The Lord be with them, dear people, 
and maintain what he has wrought among them. 
Almost immediately after coming out of church, the 
house filled with people to attend family worship. 
We w T ere almost all in tears, and parted in that 
state. Oh, it is difficult, it is painful, to part with 
some ! No tie like that of Christian love ! But I 
am called to breakfast, after which we start off for 
home. Home is home, after all. Blessed be God 
for a home on earth, but especially for the prospect 
of an everlasting home with himself ; for his pre- 
sence is the believer's home wherever he is! At that 
home I hope to meet with not a few of those with 
whom I have now parted, should we never meet 
again on earth. Oh, sweet prospect! 

" Urquhart Maxse, Sept. 22. — Left Lawers on 
Monday after breakfast, accompanied b}^ Mr. Duncan 
Campbell and one Samuel M'Laren as far as Tummel 
Bridge (about twenty miles). Came that evening 
to Dalwhinnie (forty-three miles from Lawers) ; next 
evening to Moy (forty-five miles from Dalwhinnie) ; 



218 



GLASGOW COMMUNION*. 



and this morning reached home in safety, and found 
all well before me. Deo gloria." 

Annually, for a long series of years, he visited 
Edinburgh and Glasgow on communion occasions. 
The following journal of a visit in 1887 furnishes a 
specimen of his labours at such times : — 

" Left home for Glasgow, where I w 7 as engaged to 
assist at the communion, on Monday afternoon, 
October 23. Stopped at Inverness that night, 
Next morning went by the mail to Perth. Arrived 
there at eleven at night. Started next morning for 
Glasgow. Arrived there by four p.m. Took up my 
quarters at H. Mackay's, who met me on stepping 
out of the coach. 

" Thursday, Oct. 26. — This being the fast- for the 
communion, preached in the forenoon in Hope Street 
Gaelic Church — Mr. M'Neil, minister — from Matt. ix. 
1 3. Afternoon and evening in Mr. Duncan's church, 
a new erection called Milton Church. The congre- 
gation, considering the infant state of the church, 
was pretty numerous and respectable. Ah ! did 
they know John Duncan's value, the numbers would 
soon increase and the house be crowded ; but no ! 
Text in the afternoon, Ps. cxxxviii. 3 ; evening, Rom. 
iii. 22. 

"Friday, Oct. 27. — Made some calls in the fore- 
noon. Among others, visited Mrs. Mackay, late of 
Reay, apparently on her deathbed. Her soul, I 
trust, is in a hopeful state. In the evening preached 



JOURNAL. 



219 



in Milton Church from Isa. lv. 1. Enjoyed much 
liberty. A number of the Lord's people present. It 
is well to be among them — 11 The Lord is in the con- 
gregation of His saints/' 

" Saturday, Oct 28. — Preached in Mr. Dun- 
can's church from John vii. 17. Considerable 
freedom. 

"Monday, Oct. 30. — Yesterday, attended the 
communion in Mr. Duncan's church. His action 
sermon was masterly. After serving some tables, I 
preached in the evening from Phil. iii. 1 0, " The 
power of Christ's resurrection." This day, preached 
in the forenoon in Mr. M 'Neil's church ; Rom. viii. 
3, 4. Afternoon in Mr. Duncan's from John xv. 5, 
'"Without me, ye can do nothing," 

"Tuesday, Oct, 31. — This morning breakfasted 
with the M'Donalds in Duke Street — a very kind and 
agreeable family — several other friends were present. 
Enjoyed the society much, and had a sweet season 
at family worship. Spent the forenoon in finishing 
some calls which I was under promise to make. 
Found the friends on whom I called very kind and 
truly Christian friends. Mr. Brown, on whom I 
called, was peculiarly kind. In the evening dined 
at Mr. A. Mackay's — son-in-law of Mr. Hugh 
Mackay. A large party of Christian friends present. 
A lecture after tea. After arriving at my good 
quarters, retired to my room, where I enjoyed some 
comfort after the bustle of the day. It is well when 



220 



EDINBURGH COMMUNION. 



society disposes for retirement, and retirement fits for 
society. 

" Wednesday, Nov. 1. — Left Glasgow this after- 
noon at four, my sister-in-law being along with me, 
and arrived here at a little past nine. Took up my 
bed in the hotel, it being too late to go to a private 
family. Called at Mrs. Dr. Campbell's, with whom 
I usually lodge, but found to my regret, that she 
was so poorly that I deemed it advisable not to put 
up there; so I resolved, in the course of the day, to 
take up my quarters elsewhere. 

" Friday, Nov. 3. — Took up my lodgings at Mr. 
M'Leod's, the new minister of the Gaelic church, 
there being a spare room in the house, No. 4 Whar- 
ton Place, and have the prospect of being very com- 
fortably accommodated. Yesterday being the fast 
before the communion, preached in the forenoon 
from Rom. v. 20, and in the evening, in English, to 
a crowded house, from Eph. ii. 1. Mr. M'Leod 
preached in the afternoon, a sensible, pious discourse. 
He seems to take well with the people, which is no 
small comfort, and promises well for usefulness. This 
evening, attended the fellowship meeting, at which 
I was made to preside. Was pleased that, while 
the fathers are not, some seem to be growing up to 
fill their places. 

" Monday, Nov. 6. — On Saturday, preached from 
Rom. v. 20 — continuation of Thursday's subject. 
Yesterday, having to preside at the communion, 



JOURNAL. 



221 



preached the action sermon from Tsa. liii. 12, 1 He 
hath poured out His soul unto death! In the even- 
ing, Mr. M'Leod preached, from 1 Pet. v. 8, a rousing 
and experimental discourse, rather desultory in some 
parts. This day, I preached from Rom. v. 2 J. 
Felt much freedom, and I trust some impressions 
were made. Thus the solemn work has been got 
comfortably through ; I hope not without some signs 
of the Divine presence. The praise be ascribed to 
the Lord ! 

" Wednesday, Nov. 8. — Preached last evening in 
English, according to custom, to a crowded audience. 
Was requested by some of the hearers to publish the 
discourse, which I could not well promise to do. 
Made some calls this forenoon, and attended a 
prayer-meeting in the Gaelic church in the evening, 
appointed in view of Mr. M'Leod's settlement, which 
is to take place on Friday. I am strongly urged to 
remain to witness the settlement, and to introduce 
Mr. M'Leod on the Sabbath to his new congregation. 
Though rather inconvenient, I have agreed to do so, 
and the more readily that I have got a good supply 
at home in the minister of Tain. 

"Saturday, Nov. 11. — Spent Thursday chiefly 
in visiting old friends and some sick people ; among 
others, Mrs. Dr. Campbell, whom I did not see, and 
Mrs. Ross, who is, to all appearance, drawing near her 
end. I hope she is prepared for the change. Yester- 
day, Mr. M'Leod's induction took place. An excel- 



222 



SEKMOXS AND VISITS. 



lent sermon was preached on the occasion by Mr. 
Bennie of Lady Tester's Church. The utmost liar- 
mony prevailed, and the people received their new 
pastor at the church door, with the greatest cordiality. 
The scene was truly pleasing. This day, spent 
principally in my room, having the whole work of 
to-morrow before me. The Lord strengthen me 
for it ! 

"Tuesday, Nov. 14. — Preached on Sabbath, in 
the forenoon, from Ps. xxvii. 4, and in the afternoon, 
from 1 Cor. xv. 10. In the evening in English, 
to a house crowded to suffocation, from Gal. ii. 16. 
Had much freedom during the whole dav, and in the 
evening, not less. My services being now at an end 
here and in Glasgow, the Lord bless to my hearers 
in both places what they have heard, and I trust 
He will bless it to some, and that His Word shcdl 
not return unto Him void. Yesterday, breakfasted 
with Misses Mackenzie, Seaforth. Enjoyed an hour 
or two spent with the good ladies and Mr. Moody, 
who was present, a most excellent young clergyman. 
To-day, after a trip to Portobello to see Mr. Rose, 
spent the afternoon in packing up for the journey. 
Intend to take Dundee on my way and see dear 
Mr. Kirkaldy after his late trial. I must also, it 
seems, visit Glenlyon, that dear spot, doubly endeared 
to me now, before I get home; and Mr. Campbell, 
Inverness, having agreed to preach for me, on con- 
dition that I should visit his old flock, leaves me so 



DUNDEE AND GLENLYON. 



223 



far at liberty to da so. The Lord be my light and 
salvation ! 

" Dundee, Wednesday evening, Nov. 15. — Ar- 
rived here from Edinburgh at four P.M. Good Mr. 
Kirkaldy met me on the shore with his gig and 
brought me to his own house, a mile out of town, 
where he had a party of Christian friends in waiting 
to join me at dinner. At seven o'clock I preached 
in Mr. Reid's church to a congregation of about a 
thousand, assembled by previous intimation. After 
sermon we returned to his house, and had scarcely 
time to draw our breath when a houseful of people 
attended for lecture. I did not feel fatigued after 
the whole was over. Blessed be the Lord ! His 
yoke is easy ! Mr. Kirkaldy 's trials, and especially 
his late sore bereavement in the loss of his son, have 
evidently been sanctified to him; and he is blessed 
with a partner who shares in his joys and sorrows. 
They are truly a blessed couple ! 

"Thursday, Nov. 16. — After two or three calls 
made this forenoon in Dundee, Mr. Kirkaldy accom- 
panied me in his own gig to Perth, from whence I 
took the coach to Dunkeld, where I stop for the night. 

"Glenlyon Manse, Saturday, Nov. 18. — Mr. 
* Duncan Campbell, my son-in-law, having met me 
yesterday morning at Dunkeld with his gig, we 
arrived here about seven last evening; found all 
well before us, and happy, even to the dog, to re- 
ceive us. 



224^ 



BY THE WAY. 



"Tuesday, Nov. 21. — Sabbath last, preached in 
the church here the whole day, and in the evening 
at six. The congregation pretty large, notwith- 
standing the stormy state of the weather. Several 
from the Lawers side had crossed the hill. Here I 
felt at home, and found it not difficult to preach. 
Many of the hearers seemed melted under the word. 
Preached again this day to a considerable congrega- 
tion — numbers in tears. The manse crowded every 
night for attending family worship and lecture. 

" Dalnacardoch Inn, Friday, Nov. 24. — Yester- 
day morning I left Glenlyon manse. Mr. Duncan 
Campbell accompanied me in his own gig; and after 
preaching at Fortingall and dining with Mr. Mac- 
donald, the minister, we got in the evening as far 
as Tummel Bridge. The day remarkably stormy. 
Notwithstanding, the church of Fortingall was 
crowded to excess. Several of the Glenlyon and 
Lochtayside people attended, some from the distance 
of ten, twelve, and fifteen miles; so strong is the 
desire of the poor people to hear the word ! This 
day, my friend and I arrived here about ten A.M., and 
after resting an hour or two, Mr. Duncan Campbell 
returned home. Here, having no other mode of 
conveyance, I remain to wait the mail which passes 
for the north at two o'clock in the morning, and in 
the mean time, in my snug parlour, employ myself 
in preparations for the Sabbath." 

During a tour to Badenoch and Glenlyon, tidings 



BAPENOCH AND GLENLYON. 



reached him of the awakenings at Kilsyth and 
Dundee. The Lord seemed to him to be giving 
days of His right hand again to Scotland; and he 
could not keep away from the scene of His work. 
He visits both these places and preaches incessantly 
while there. In the following extracts from his 
journals are his impressions of what he witnessed 
on that remarkable occasion : — 

" Left home accompanied by Simon, my son, on the 
14ith Avcjiifit, Wednesday. Preached on Thursday 
at Moy, being the fast there before the communion. 
Proceeded on Friday to Kingussie, to assist at the 
communion there. Preached on Saturday in English, 
and afterwards in Gaelic, at the tent; on Sabbath and 
Monday also in Gaelic. 

f- 20. — On Tuesday started for Glenlyon, to attend 
the communion there. Arrived on Wednesday fore- 
noon. Preached in Glenlyon, Thursday, Friday 
evening, and Saturday in Gaelic. The Lord was 
present here of a truth. Some remains of the weep- 
ings of old to be seen, and, I trust, some fresh in- 
stances. Glenlyon still a highly favoured spot. 
Long may it continue so ! 

" 27. — On Tuesday started again for Eadenoch, to 
assist at the Rothiemurchus communion on the 1st 
September. Arrived Tuesday night at Dalwhinnie. 
Preached, Wednesday, at Alvie; Thursday, Saturday, 
Sabbath, and Monday at Rothiemurchus. A com- 
fortable season, deep attention and some indications 



226 



KILSYTH. 



of awakening to be seen. After this, my original 
purpose was to return home, but a pressing applica- 
tion from Kilsyth, and another from Dundee, to 
witness and assist at a work of revival, which, it 
was said, had commenced at each of these places, 
obliged me to steer my course for Kilsyth, and after- 
wards for Dundee. Accordingly, I returned hy 
Glenlyon (Sept. 4), where I arrived on Wednesday 
forenoon, and set off the same day for Loch Lomond, 
Mr. Duncan Campbell accompanying me. Passed 
that night most comfortably at Mr. Samuel M'Laren's, 
St. Fillans. Owing to the rainy state of the weather, 
we got to Loch Lomond but on Friday forenoon. 
We reached Glasgow that evening, and Kilsyth on 
Saturday afternoon. Here I felt as on hallowed 
ground, and as if an uncommon influence from above 
had lighted upon me. The town, containing up- 
wards of two thousand, in perfect stillness; and groups 
of people here and there standing together and talk- 
ing of the one thing needful. The sight was truly 
solemn, and filled me with awe. 

" On arriving at the manse, Mr. Burns, the clergy- 
man, felt happy to see me, and set me instantly to 
work. In the evening I had to address a crowded 
audience in his church from John iii. 36. All was 
stillness and deep attention — many in tears — chil- 
dren of eight and ten among the rest. In short, a 
general impression from above was evidently on the 
congregation. 



KILSYTH. 



227 



" 8th. — On Sabbath, I preached in the forenoon 
from Rom. iv. 6, 7, 8, and in the evening from 
Isaiah lv. 1. Mr. Burns in the afternoon from Heb. 
iii. 7, 8. The appearance of the congregation 
during the whole day was deeply interesting. It 
as a melting scene — no audible crying, but much 
silent weeping. After coming out of church in the 
evening, about one hundred and fifty or two hundred 
men, women, and children stood around me anxiously 
wishing to hear something more from me. I ad- 
dressed them for about forty minutes, concluding 
with singing and prayer, and dismissed them, still 
reluctant to go. The scene of weeping, the stillness 
of night, and the canopy of the sky, conspired to 
make this extra and out-door sarvice a solemn one 
indeed. 

"Monday, 9th. — Conversed during the day with 
several individuals in deep distress — the manse 
crowded with such, the whole day from 10 to o. 
Mr. Burns and I had each our hands full of this 
pleasant work. Some of those we conversed with 
have got comfort, others are still under conviction. 
In the evening preached to a large congregation in 
church. Much melting, but no crying. When re- 
turning, numbers gathered round me with tears in 
their eyes, evidently wishing to hear more of Christ. 
I addressed them for about twenty minutes, prayed 
with them and dismissed them. All this in the open 
air. and under silence of night. 



228 



KTLSYTH AND EDINBURGH. 



" Tuesday, 10. — Occupied during the day much as 
yesterday. In the evening preached at Banton, for- 
merly a district of the parish, but now a new erection, 
from Eph. v. 14. The Spirit has been evidently 
poured out on the inhabitants of this place. Num- 
bers were in tears, and children from eight to four- 
teen years old. After dismissing the people, scarcely 
any would retire ; almost all kept their seats, eagerly 
looking to me. Addressed them for nearly an hour, 
and then dismissed them all bathed in tears. The 
scene was truly affecting and interesting ! 

" Wednesday, 1 1. — Took a trip to Glasgow. 

" Thursday, 1 2. — Keturned to Kilsyth in the after- 
noon. Preached there in the evening to a crowded 
audience from Heb. viii., on the covenant of grace. 
Many seemed to understand and to feel the subject. 
It told on their faces by tears of joy. 

"Friday, 13. — Having been urged by young Mr. 
Burns to visit Dundee, and the congregation of which 
he had the interim charge there, where, it appeared, 
the Lord had begun a work of revival, I started this 
forenoon for Dundee, taking Edinburgh by the way ; 
but on my arrival in Edinburgh, finding that the 
Gaelic congregation were without a pastor, agreed, at 
their earnest request, to stay with them over Sabbath. 

"Monday, 16. — Preached yesterday in Edinburgh, 
forenoon, from Heb. xiii. 22; afternoon, 1 Sam. 
iii. 1; evening in English, Eph. v. 14. This day 
left Edinburgh at nine in the morning by steam. 



DUNDEE. 



229 



Arrived at Dundee by three. Found Mr. Burns 
deeply engrossed with the work of revival. Preached 
for him in the evening in St. Peter's church — that 
in which he officiates — from Deut. xxxii. 39. The 
house crowded ; and the audience exhibited a 
solemnity and fixedness of attention rarely to be 
seen, and which evidently indicated an impression 
from above. There were tears to be seen in abun- 
dance, and much silent weeping, but nothing audible. 
The speaker felt much liberty in addressing the 
people, and a more than usual awe on his spirit, as 
if the Almighty were visibly present 

" Tuesday, 1 7. — This forenoon conversed with 
several individuals, in number about sixteen, about 
the state of their souls, most of them under deep 
conviction. A few, however, have obtained comfort. 
The work is evidently a work of God. In the eve- 
ning, being obliged, owing to the crowd, to remove 
to St. David's, a far larger house, containing upwards 
of 2000, I preached from Isaiah xlv. 24. The 
audience, though much more numerous, exhibited the 
same symptoms of solemnity and deep concern as 
last night. 

" Wednesday, 18. — Made some forenoon calls, and 
conversed with some who fell in my way in mental 
distress. The great concern is truly the great con- 
cern with them. I preached in the evening in St. 
David's, from Acts xvi. 30, 31. The house crowded 
to excess, hundreds apparently affected. 



230 



DUNDEE AND PERTH. 



u Thursday, 1 9. — Mr. Burns buying got a supply 
for this evening, I took a trip up to Perth, having 
been requested to preach an evening there. We 
met in Mr. Stewart's church. Preached from Isaiah 
Iv. 3. The congregation verv attentive, but nothing 
further to be seen. Was requested, however, by a 
deputation sent me to the vestry, to promise another 
evening there. 

"Friday, 20. — Returned to Dundee, and preached 
in the evening in St. David's to as large a crowd as 
formerly; and apparently not less under an impres- 
sion of divine things. This day, Mr. W. Burns left 
me for the Kilsyth communion, and begged that I 
should continue with his people till his return, which, 
in their present state, I could not but agree to do. 

" Monday, 23. — On Saturday evening had a prayer 
meeting with the people in St. David's. The church 
pretty full. Mr. Lewis attended and assisted on the 
occasion. The spirit of prayer was given. Yester- 
day, preached forenoon and afternoon in St. Peter's 
from John xvi. 7-10. A deep and solemn attention, 
much melting and many tears. In the evening 
preached in St. David's from Isaiah lv. 1 . The house 
crowded to suffocation — great movement — a season 
of power indeed. Conversed witli some in the 
vestry after sermon. This clay met with several who 
called, under soul distress, (in all, twenty-two) among 
whom were two girls about nine and a boy of eleven. 
Had much satisfaction in conversing with them. In 



AWAKENING IN ROSS-SHIRE. 



231 



the evening preached in St. David's from Ezek. 
xxxvii. 1, &c. 

" Tuesday, 24. — Spent the forenoon in conversing 
with people, as yesterday. Upwards of twenty called. 
No unpromising case. In the evening preached in 
St. David's from 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. Enjoyed much 
liberty; and deep impressions made on the congre- 
gation. 

" Wednesday 25. — Preached at Perth from Eph. 
v. 14, to a crowded and an attentive audience, Mr. 
Ewing, one of the town ministers, having kindly 
taken my place at Dundee." 

Returning home, he began to publish the good 
news of the Lord's work in Kilsyth and Dundee, 
and to sound the alarm to those who were at ease in 
Zion. A movement commenced among the dry bones, 
under his preaching in Tain and Tarbat, on com- 
munion occasions, and extended to many other places 
throughout the country. The power of the Bread- 
albane days came back to his preaching again. 
Texts from which he had not preached since then 
were now resumed. Hundreds were now asking for 
the first time, "What must we do to be saved?" 
But the Lord's people were complaining, that he was 
withholding their wonted fare from them. He was 
so bent on the conversion of sinners, that he laid out 
all his strength in preaching towards that object. 
Never were more alarming sermons preached than 
those which he then delivered; but never, in the 



232 



REVIVALS. 



most fervid of them all, did he use other than scrip- 
tural considerations to influence his hearers. His 
imagination, even in those days of excitement, was 
kept under the strong check of truth. 

He was always sanguine of good results from such 
a movement as then waved over the land ; but he 
was careful, in speaking to those who were impressed, 
to deal faithfully with them, shutting them up to 
the only good foundation, and exposing the vanity of 
every attainment short of their being new creatures 
in Christ. It cannot be said that his expectations 
were realized. Good was done, and abiding fruit 
remained ; but many a bud of promise withered 
quite away. 

The history of revivals in the North warrants the 
remark, that in inverse proportion to its demonstra- 
tiveness in outcries and prostrations is the per- 
manent good fruit of an awakening. And it is in 
this direction that such movements have been 
making progress. The more they bear this charac- 
ter, the more they arrest the eye of the public; and 
the cases least promising are those which are most 
observed. When these result in no permanent good, 
the decline is marked, and the whole is judged of by 
these samples. The world is thus confirmed in un- 
belief, and grievous injury is done to the cause of 
vital godliness. How careful, therefore, ought in- 
dividuals and churches to be not to form a hasty 
judgment, amid the excitement of a "revival!" It 



REVIVALS. 



233 



is surely unwise and unlawful to implicate the credit 
of religion in individual cases, or in any movement 
by which a community may be swayed. By their 
fruits alone can seeming converts be judged ; and 
only by these can it be determined, whether a wide- 
spread awakening was a work of God or not. Till 
these are developed let individuals and churches 
both suspend their judgments. 



CHAPTER XI. 




DOMESTIC LIFE — RULES FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF TIME — - 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS SON. 

IT was said, but it must have been, by one 
who was more anxious to speak smartly 
than to speak truly, that Mr. M'Donald 
was never "from home" but when he was 
" at home." None would have said so who had seen 
him at his own fireside. If he spent but a small portion 
of his time at home, it was only because he loved his 
Master better than his family, and the service of the 
gospel better than the comforts of domestic life. 
There was no man who could make home more plea- 
sant and was more disposed to do so, and who could 
more enjoy the happiness of the family circle. Re- 
taining still a father's place, he could be at the same 
time a companion to his children, making his con- 
versation an enjoyment to them, as well as an 
instruction. He brought all the fresh interest 
of a student to bear upon the school-work of his 
boys. Always punctual, he took an interest in 
watching and directing the various domestic arrange- 
ments. He kept his eye, when at home, on the 



EMPLOYMENT OF TIME. 



23.5 



management of his temporal affairs, drew out plans 
for the improvement of his glebe and farm, and kept 
a record of their results, when they were executed. 
And yet, while interested for the time in the affairs 
of home, he could easily relinquish it, with all its cares 
and comforts, when called to preach the everlasting 
gospel. 

The following " rules for the employment of time, 
each day," he invariably attempted to follow, when 
at home. 

" From 7 to 9, .a.m. Private devotion. 



„ 9 to 10, „ 


Family worship and breakfast, 


„ 10 to 3, p.m. 


Parochial duties, study, &c. 


„ 3 to 4, ,, 


Dinner. 


,, 4 to 5, ,, 


Study. 


5 to 6, 


Tea and conversation. 


„ 6 to 9, „ 


Private devotion and study. 


„ 9 to 10, „ 


Family worship and supper. 


10 to 11, ,, 


Private devotion. 


„ 11 tO 7, A.M. 


Sleep and dressing. 



That is to say, — 

For private devotion and study, 
Meals, family and parochial duties, 

namely, for each, 4 hours. 
Sleep and dressing, 

The form of this table, and the mode in which the 
day is divided, are quite characteristic. His love of 
precision would have made him quite uncomfortable, 
unless he had discovered, that he had divided the 
twenty-four hours into three equal portions, and that 
a distinct work had been assigned to each of them. 



8 hours. 
8 „ 

24 " 



236 



HIS FAMILY. 



Mr. Macdonald's second marriage took place in 
1818. A few weeks before, Mr. Findlater, who was 
well acquainted with the Millbank famity, and with 
the character of Miss Mackenzie, thus refers to his 
intended marriage, in a letter to Mr. Macdonald. 
" I have to congratulate you in the most cordial 
manner on the happy prospect of being united to a 
lady of such accomplishments and such eminent 
piety/' The feeling thus expressed by Mr. Findlater 
was that with which this marriage was universally 
regarded. 

He had ten children; of whom three were by his 
first marriage, and six are still alive. 

Of them all, John, his first born, was his best be- 
loved — John the correct, lively, precocious boy, the 
ardent scholar, the distinguished student, the approved 
convert, the ripe Christian, the able preacher, the 
successful pastor, and the devoted missionary. The 
course of such a son was one which such a father 
could watch with fond and delighted interest. 
Pleased with his rapid progress as a boy in school, 
he was still more gratified by his eminence in 
college; but the joy of joys to him w T as his sons con- 
version to God; a change too marked, in his case, to 
be doubted even by the most anxious heart. And 
when he was about to enter on the service of the 
gospel, with what hopeful interest did his father look 
to the prospect before him; and how often, there- 
after, did he sit with ravished feelings, listening to 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



237 



his clear, spiritual, powerful preaching, To such a 
son he could let out his heart as to no other. They 
corresponded regularly; and the father's letters were 
carefully preserved. These contain much that is inter- 
esting and instructive, and exhibit his own character 
more clearly than could be done by description. 

In a letter to his son while in the Theological 
Hall, he writes, — 

" I have sent in your box of books, Lowttis 
Hebreiv Poesy, — well worthy the perusal of a young 
or old Divine — and Edwards on the Religions Affec- 
tions, a work of distinguished merit, as discriminating 
in the most clear, convincing and scriptural manner, 
between true religion and every counterfeit. 

" The work is worth gold — may the Lord bless it 
to my dear John, and enable him not only to under- 
stand but to reach the attainments of Christian 
character, knowledge, and experience delineated in it. 
I am sure you have reaped both pleasure and profit 
from M'Laurin. You see what kind of divines a 
former century produced, and how they were em- 
ployed. I hope you continue to enjoy health. The 
Lord deal bountifully with your soul. ■ Oh, live 
not,' says Brainerd, to one in your situation, ' after 
the rate of ordinary Christians, if you would be a 
faithful minister of Christ you must be an extra- 
ordinary one.'" 

In reply to a letter from his son asking his advice 
as to his taking licence soon, he writes, — 



238 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



" With regard to the point, however, of taking 
your licence soon, regarding which you wish to have 
my opinion, I think, upon the whole, it may be 
as well you should do so. You may in that case 
nvail yourself of opportunities to preach the gospel 
where it is not a little needed- — and where j^ou may 
be asked to do so — nor are the wishes of the Lord's 
people to whom you refer to be despised — they may 
possibly be indications of the Lord's own mind re- 
garding the matter. Time is short and fast passing 
away — immortal souls are perishing; and if the Lord 
has inclined you to spend and be spent in the service 
of His gospel, it does not become you to be slothful 
in going forward to the work. The only fear I 
should have in taking an early licence, is that } T ou 
may not be prepared with a stock of discourses to 
meet the demands that may be made upon you, and 
that in this case you might not be able fully to pre- 
pare, which would be an injury to you at the outset, 
and much against your acceptability and usefulness ; 
or run the risk of sacrificing your health to the pre- 
parations necessary. I hope, however, you will guard 
against each of these evils ; or rather I pray God 
you may be preserved in the middle path — 'in medio 
tutissimus ibis/ 

" When you acquaint me that you are licensed, I 
may offer a few hints for your future conduct as a 
preacher, and such at least as my own experience 
may suggest to me at the time, but for the present 



A SKELETON. 239 

I desire to commit you for direction, strength, and 
every needful grace and qualification to Him in whom 
dwells all fulness, and who can enable you to open 
your mouth boldly, proclaiming the gospel of salvation. 

"The little skeleton you sent me seems to embrace 
in it a natural enough plan and arrangement of sub- 
ject — perhaps it would be more in unison with the 
doctrine of the text in treating of the (true or proper) 
knowledge of the truth, instead of saying, 'faith/ 
' love,' &c, the knowledge of : — 

" 1. Its nature and import. 2. Its divine 
authority. 3. Its excellence. 4. Its purifying or 
practical influence. The points here are in substance 
the same as yours ; but this seems to correspond 
more with the language of the text. The words of 
the enunciation should be attended to. The second 
head might be worded in greater conformity to the 
text — reasons why men, notwithstanding efforts made, 
fall short of this important attainment — efforts made 
— they are 'ever learning' — and they nevertheless 
fall short. Reasons, 1. That they approach truth 
with a heart attached to sin and worldly gratifica- 
tions. 2. With a legal (self-righteous) spirit — the 
Jews. 3. With self-confidence as to their own in- 
tellectual powers as competent, &c. 4. Early pre- 
judices and preconceived opinions. They bring truth 
to these, and not these to truth. 5. Not submitting 
to divine tuition. But perhaps you had better follow 
your own plan.'* 



240 



LETTER TO HIS SOX. 



. His son was licensed January 6th, 1830. His 
promise of writing to him on being acquainted of 
his license, his father fulfils on the 18th of the same 
month. In his letter he gives him suitable and 
valuable instruction in prospect of the great work 
before him. After referring to two other matters, 
the letter thus proceeds : — 

" But in the third place, I have to acknowledge 
the receipt of your kind and interesting letter of the 
7th current, to the contents of which I shall now 
direct my attention. You see, by the way, when I 
mention first, second, and third, that I remember I am 
addressing & preacher, who will be expected to observe 
order and arrangement in his discourses; and to this, 
from what I know of the cast of your mind, I have 
reason to believe you will attend. There is too great a 
tendency, in the present day, to the essay-mode of 
preaching. This may please, and make a temporary 
impression on some hearers; but it will not instruct 
or edify the body of Christ. Such preachers seem to 
me to suit their own minds and to gratify their own 
tastes, rather than to consult the circumstances and 
the best interests of their hearers. 

" Since your mouth has been opened by men, I pray 
that the Lord may 'give you utterance that you 
may open your mouth boldly to make known the 
mystery of the gospel/ The day on which } t ou 
received your licence constitutes an important date, 
and inaugurates a new era in your life. The rise or 



HINTS AS TO PREACHING. 



24) 



fall of some in Israel may depend on the event which 
then took place — nay, so far as instrumentality is 
concerned, the eternity of your hearers may turn 
upon it. This, I confess, is a solemn, and at times 
may prove, an overwhelming thought. But be strong 
in your Redeemer ; for he is mighty to save and 
rich in mercy. 

" In regard to your preparations for the pulpit, you 
know my method. But different men have different 
minds, and must therefore pursue different methods 
in this important affair. In general, every man 
should adopt the method which appears to him to 
suit best the character and bent of his own mind, as 
well as his peculiar habits of thinking, and which 
also will put it in his power to preach with most 
effect. I approve entirely of your intention not to 
read your discourses. Some may be obliged, from 
the state of their nerves or memory, to do so, in 
which case it is excusable. But in regard to many, 
in our day, who have given in to this habit, I fear 
no such apology can be pled; and that nothing 
induced them to it, but the fear of committing an 
occasional lapsus, or of not pleasing a certain class 
of hearers; in short, the fear of not making a 
splendid appea rance before men. I fear pride lurks 
at the bottom. But what are these, and all such 
considerations, to the advantages both to speakers 
and hearers, that might attend preaching the truth of 
God's word direct from the heart. Besides, this mode 

(103) 16 



242 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



leaves room for the Spirit, if I may say so, to step 
in, when we are delivering our discourses, to warm 
our hearts and animate our souls; nay, to suggest 
ideas at the time, which He may bless to souls, and 
which may prove to be the gems of our composi- 
tions. The reading system, I am afraid, has a ten- 
dencv to exclude such divine communications from 

if 

our discourses. At the same time you must know 
that I am not against writing your discourses, and 
w T riting them out fully and accurately, at least for 
the first few years of your life in the work. Quite 
the reverse. The habit of writing them — even 
though you should not deliver exactly what you 
have committed to paper, or commit fully to memory 
— will give you a facility of expression in the 
delivery which is peculiarly desirable. It will also 
enable you, in the course of time, to attain to a 
style which must be your oivn, and in the use of 
which you will feel quite at home. It will, besides, 
tend to give your mind a clear and correct view of 
j^our subject — to possess which is the great secret of 
properly conducted pulpit services. And, my dear 
John, make a point in all your discourses of so 
mastering them as to see every inch of your ground 
clear before you. Do not work in the dark. En- 
deavour, too, to feel impressed with your subject 
while preparing it. Pray for preparation, and pray 
over your preparation. 

" In the pulpit be grave, solemn, and modest. 



SUITABLE ADVICES. 



243 



Modesty well becomes a young man, and an air of 
confidence is disgusting, especially at that period of 
life. Avoid affectation too. Speak naturally, and 
let your manner appear to be so too. But, if pos- 
sible, be serious and affectionate. Show your hearers 
that you feel for them, and love them, and that you 
seek not theirs, but them. Exercise a dependence 
on God while you speak. Let men and all inferior be 
lost to you in his Omnipresence, in your personal 
responsibility, and in those eternal realities with 
which you and your hearers are inseparably and 
awfully connected. 

v Oh, what wrestlings in prayer, what searchings 
of the Scriptures, what meditation, what holy walk- 
ing, are necessary in order to reach these attainments. 
May the Lord famish you with these and every other 
qualification for his own work ! 

" I trust few of these hints are necessary for you ; 
but I have thrown them down at your own request, 
and as expressions of a father's anxiety and regard. 1 ' 

In reply to a letter from his son, giving him an 
account of his first sermon, and asking his advice as 
to what subject would be suitable for Elgin, where 
he had been asked to preach, he writes : — 

" I am glad you acknowledge that you got on at 
least beyond your expectations, with your maiden 
discourse. You have cause to be both humble and 
thankful. I hope you have got on with comfort at 
Alves, and that you now begin to know what you 



214 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



can do. The passage in Luke (xiii. 24), I conceive to 
be a very suitable subject for Elgin. The subject 
divides itself. I. The exhortation, c Strive to enter 
in at the strait gate/ Under which may be con- 
sidered, 1. ' The strait gate.' Some say regeneration ; 
I should rather say, the Lord Jesus Christ in his 
righteousness and salvation. He is elsewhere called 
'the door' (John x. 7, 9 ; xiv. 6). Through him a 
sinner enters into life and eternal glory. ' Strait ' — 
not because of anything in itself — not because of any 
deficiency in the love, power, merits, of the Redeemer, 
but because of impediments to his entrance on the 
part of the sinner, such as pride, legalism, the love 
of sin, attachment to the world, &c. Perhaps also 
there is an allusion to the smallness of the number 
who go in thereat (Matt. vii. 14) — the gate being- 
adapted to the number. 2. 'To enter in/ implies 
receiving Christ by faith — a faith of divine opera- 
tion. This presupposes divine influences and a 
certain change. Entering in implies, further, a 
renunciation of those things which operated as 
impediments, if not a rescue from them on believing. 
Also, access to spiritual blessing — such as, peace, 
communion with God, holiness, Szc. In short we 
enter in by faith, from certain evils to certain bless- 
ings. 3. We are required to ' strive/ that is, 
agonize. This implies a sense of danger, and of 
difficulties ; but the diligent use of means, particu- 
larly the word and prayer; and also the prompting 



LECTURING AND PREACHING. 



245 



influence of the prospects set before us. Hence — 1. 
To be a true Christian is no easy attainment. 2. 
The number of such is few. 3. Christ desires our 
welfare, and is unwilling that any should perish. 
II. The arguments by which it is enforced. ' Many 
shall seek and shall not be able/ that is, shall seek 
Christ to save them from hell — shall seek entrance 
into heaven without holiness, ' but shall not be able/ 
God s sentence stands against them — their own dis- 
qualification prohibits it. Therefore they must be 
excluded, and be miserable for ever. See context, 
ver. 25-30. The arguments then are, — ] . Our own 
interest. 2. The risk of exclusion — 'Many shall 
seek.' 3. The awful consequences of such an exclu- 
sion. 4. The Redeemers earnestness in warning. 
The application is obvious, — 1. Self-examination. 
2. Sinners should consider their danger, and attend 
to this subject without delay. 3. Believers have 
still to ' strive ' for, though in Christ, they are not 
yet in glory." 

The next extract is from a letter written to his 
son after his settlement in London. 

" You have anticipated me," he writes, " in the 
account you gave me of your mode of procedure in 
your public exercises. You are right in lecturing on 
one part of the day, and preaching on the other. 
This was the good old practice, is recommended in 
our Directory, and commends itself to the hearers for 
utility wherever it is acted on. I am convinced 



246 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



your time will be much occupied, or rather, variously 
so, which is worse. Visits, calls, and numerous 
avocations of one kind or another will, as Dr. Chal- 
mers would say. fritter doivn your time to atoms. 
Make the best, however, of the broken intervals. 
Begin your Sabbath preparations early in the week. 
Do not sit up late ; remember you have not your 
father's constitution. Endeavour by prayer, reading 
the Scriptures, and a close walk with God, to main- 
tain on your spirit a preparatory habit; and in your 
actual preparations you will get on with greater 
felicity and expedition. So you have had peeps of 
Sinai. The Lord will, I trust, overrule this for good 
both to yourself and to your congregation. But 
remember that its flames have been quenched in 
Calvary: There take your stand; and when you 
visit Sinai — which you ought to do, while there 
remains in your congregation a sinner exposed to its 
flames, let it be with the view of drawing them to 
Calvary/' 

A few months later he writes: — 

" I would feel pleasure in writing to you oftener 
than I do, did my time permit; but at this season 
of the year [August], as you well remember, public 
engagements crowd upon my time. The sacramental 
occasions around us have been so numerous that I 
have been able to be but one Sabbath in my own 
pulpit since June. During that period I have had 
my share of the solemn work at Reay, Loth, Alness, 



PULPIT WORK AND PREPARATION. 



247 



Tain, and Urray. Next Sabbath the sacrament is 
to be dispensed at Dingwall, where a considerable 
share of the work is assigned to the poor parson of 
Urquhart. May the Lord strengthen me for it! 
He has certainly done so during the incessant labours 
of the weeks that are past; and I should acknow- 
ledge this to his praise. But, alas ! the ingratitude, 
insensibility, nay, adamantinism of this heart of 
mine under all his favours. Such a state of things 
with me shows me what I am in myself, and what 
he is, and must be, under the designation of 1 the God 
of grace.' I feel he must do the work (both with 
respect to what is to be done by, as well as in me), 
and bear the glory, and I am contented this should 
be the case. My prayer is that he would preserve 
me from doing his work either slightly or deceitfully 
— for I feel at times — and it is a solemn thought — 
that I stand for him, wdien I stand before my fellow- 
men, and that I transact with fellowmen with respect 
to their eternity. I am happy to understand that 
you feel increasing liberty in your ministrations, and 
particularly in your pulpit exercises. Writing your 
discourses fully out, however much may be said for 
the practice — and it has its advantages — will in 
your case have the effect of overburdening your pre- 
parations, and fettering your mind in the delivery. 
In short you are perfectly right (and as a messenger 
of Christ, it is imperative on you), to adopt that 
method which enables you best to preach the gospel 



248 



AT NOTTINGHAM!. 



to advantage, and which you find the Lord counte- 
nance most for the benefit of your hearers. I am 
aware you will find few, very few friends, even 
among the Dissenters, to whom you can freely un- 
bosom your mind ; and this is a disadvantage which 
you feel much in such a place as London. There is 
a sad falling oft* in all classes of Dissenters, in all 
that regards vitality in religion, from what their 
forefathers were — Ah quantum mittati ab illis ! 
This, however, will lead you to live more in fellow- 
ship with Jesus ; and next to him with patriarchs, 
prophets, and apostles, and to be a follower of those 
who through faith and patience inherit the pro- 
mises. 

" So you have got some drops of mercury into 
your discourses. I am glad that they are infused 
by truth, and not borrowed even from a father. 
Your father and you are rather in the extremes in 
reference to that article. But, in medio tutissimus 
ibis. And you are a field-preacher too ! Some will 
say, Where will these things end ? Go on, and 
prosper; and the God of your fathers be with 
you ! " 

On his way to London he visited Nottingham, and 
during his stay there, was constantly engaged in preach- 
ing. He wrote to his son the following account of 
his reception and labours there, and his impressions 
of the state of religion in that place. There is a 
most characteristic paragraph in this extract, expres- 



HIS DELIGHT IN FREACHING. 



219 



give of his love for his work in the service of the 
gospel: — 

" We were kindly received by Mr. Smith, a 
banker in this place, who, with his wife, Lady Lucy 
Melville, from Fifeshire, seem to be Christians 
indeed. Their house is to be my home while I 
remain here — and I feel at home in it; it is conveni- 
ently situated at the distance of a mile or a mile 
and a half from the town, and seems to me to be a 
Goshen in the vicinity of Egyptian darkness. No 
sooner had I arrived than work was cut out for me, 
so that I have since preached regularly in the even- 
ings; in dissenting meeting-houses of course — and in 
the mornings lectured in an apartment of this house 
(fitted up with desks and seats), to upwards of a 
hundred people who attend from the neighbourhood. 
This it is likely shall be my employment — and I am 
told it must be so — while I remain in the place. I 
find it pleasing and agreeable to myself to be thus 
occupied in my Master's work wherever I am, and 
would feel out of my element were it otherwise. 
There is a dear female friend of ours at home, who, 
if she were near you, and looking over your shoulder, 
cast her eye on this latter clause, would immediately 
say, ' That is perfectly true. When you cease to 
preach we may order your coffin,' and were I beside 
her I should say, Amen. If it be the Lord's will, let 
me live and die in his work, and not survive my 
labours or usefulness. I find the people, wherever I 



250 



ME. KIEKCALDY. 



address them, very attentive, and making allowance 
for that species of attentiveness, which the first 
appearance of a stranger generally produces, one 
would read in their faces an eagerness to hear truth. 

" I understand that the fundamental, and more 
prominent doctrines of the gospel, are kept much in 
the back ground here by those who profess to preach 
it, and when brought forward, are so diluted by the 
wisdom of words, as to become quite vapid to the 
immortals who hear it. Oh, I fear .it may be said 
of our modern English Dissenters, compared with 
the ancient race, quantum mutati sunt ah illis 1 I 
endeavour in my poor homely way to set the funda- 
mentals before the people, and they seem to listen 
to them, as hitherto almost unheard truths. The 
Lord bless them for the conversion of some and 
edification of others." 

The visit to Nottingham was owing to his being 
asked by his friend Mr. Kirkcaldy, of Dundee, to 
accompany him to be present at his marriage. For 
this guileless Christian he had a warm affection. 
He was one of those men who have much more 
warmth in their hearts than light in their heads, 
but having at the same time as much of the instinc- 
tive discernment which attends the spiritual life, as 
to know the difference between truth and error, and 
to elect the spiritually minded as associates from 
among the many who " name the name of Christ." A 
Nathanael in godly simplicity, he was to all Christ's 




days of prosperity; and when no longer rich, and no 
stranger to afflictions of various kinds, he showed 
by his habitual cheerfulness that his heart and his 
treasure were in heaven. 

Mr. Macdonakl gives the following amusing 
- account of the marriage ceremony in one of his 
letters from Nottingham : — 

" I have this day witnessed the knot tied between 
Mr. Kirkcaldy and his bride, in the Church of Eng- 
land form, of course; and a form it was without a 
spirit, a body without a soul. The honest man 
would make you smile in repeating the words of the 
ceremony after the clergyman, by adding some 
qualifying terms of his own, such as, 'by the grace of 
God,' &c. ; and when he came to the w 7 ords, ' with 
this body I thee worship/ which seemed to have 
stuck in his throat, and which, to say the least, are 
very improperly expressed, he added, ' in respect and 
honour;' so, as Bogue said of Scott, he always added 
something good of his own. I had to address a 
parlour lecture to the young couple in the afternoon, 
Lady Lucy smilingly alleging that the marriage 
would not be complete without this. They propose 
hearing a sermon to-night in Zion Chapel, where I 
am to preach, by w 7 ay of being ' kivked' says Mr, 
Kirkcaldy. ' Churched, you mean/ says his bride. I 
replied that from this day her very name, she must 
be aware, included the Icirk." 



252 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



The following extract from one of his letters to 
his son, written in 1835, after a severe illness, is 
interesting, as containing a confidential expression of 
his opinion as to the propriety of his being so much 
from home, and a statement of his reasons for con- 
tinuing his home missionary labours ; and because of 
the account which he gives of how he was exercised 
by the affliction with which it pleased the Lord to 
visit him : — 

" I have often resolved/' he writes, " to circumscribe 
my labours, and I have done so from the considera- 
tion of my advancing years and declining health and 
strength, as well as witli a view to my devoting 
more time to the interests of my own parish and 
people. But I find it won't do. I feel I would be 
going before the Lord, and he might make me smart 
for it. I regret, indeed, that young men are not 
rising, with a sufficient portion of the missionary 
spirit — home missionary, I mean — who would relieve 
me and others of these extra labours. I long to see 
this. I would rejoice to see it; and would be glad 
to be displaced, and that my services in this way 
were superseded. The Lord raise such in his time 
and way. Such as will regard not only the preach 
but the go likewise. Mamma wrote to you regard- 
ing the serious attack of illness with which I had 
been seized; serious indeed it was. A stitch in my 
left side which seized me suddenly while assisting at 
the communion at Moy, was like to take away my 



LEARNING BY AFFLICTION. 



253 



very breath, and indeed rendered breathing peculiarly 
painful to me, until, under divine providence, it was 
gradually removed by bleeding, blistering, &c. I 
was bled profusely. The Lord was pleased to restore 
me to some measure of health, but I felt considerably 
reduced and weakened for some time thereafter by 
the process I had gone through. 1 have cause to 
bless him, however, that I now feel as well as ever. 
May the Lord enable me to improve the dispensation 
in the manner that is most conducive to his glory, 
and to my own good, and that of immortal souls. I 
should have mentioned that the stitch appears to 
have been occasioned by a fall I had some days 
before from the gig, and which I neglected to attend 
to. It was my left side that struck the ground, and 
it was in this that the stitch arose. There is nothing 
without a cause, whether known or unknown to us ; 
but query, why should the cause be permitted to 
exist in this case? Why should the fall take place 
at all ? and why should it be permitted, since it took 
place, to produce such consequences? These were 
questions which occupied my mind at the time, and 
without attempting to explore the hidden purpose of 
God in the matter, I thought I had been made to 
see, by the visitation, that he could carry on his 
work without me, for I had several enouo-ements on 
hand at the time, all of which I had to put off ; 
that He intended to humble me for dividing the 
glory with him, in receiving honour from men; 



254 



BEST PREPARATION FOR PREACHING. 



that He designed also to rebuke congregations, who, 
at their seasons of communion, thought nothing was 
light unless Mr. Macdonald was there, and thus, I 
fear, looked to man more than to the Lord. May 
the Lord grant that the chastisement both to them 
and me may have its due effect." 

In a letter written in 1836 he indicates, as the 
result of his own experience, what he regarded as 
the best preparation for preaching: — 

" We are glad from time to time to hear of. as 
well as from you, and especially that you enjoy 
health while you labour more abundantly. I trust 
you find in the Lord a present help in time of need 
and that you enjoy the reward in the labour. * The 
way of the righteous is strength,' says Solomon ; and 
the faithful and active servant of Christ will find it 
sb. I have never preached, any summer in my life, so 
far as I recollect, more frequently than I have done 
this summer, and have often gone out, so far as 
experience is concerned, ' without scrip or purse,' 
yet when I cast myself on the Lord, I had reason to 
say that ' I lacked nothing.' I find that the best 
preparation for preaching is not only to collect and 
arrange ideas, which by no means is to be despised 
to overlooked ; but a holy frame of mind, consistent 
walk, and constant practice of duty of some kind or 
other, and along with all this, love to the Redeemer, 
a devotion of heart to him, commiseration for 
immortal souls, and intimacy with God in a life of 



LETTER FROM HIS SON. 



2o5 



prayer. Oh, my dear John, I wish you may possess 
much of these requisites, and the Lord prosper your 
labours more and more." 

While his son was in London, he visited him 
several times, and assisted him repeatedly on com- 
munion occasions. His son returned his visits, and 
assisted his father at Urquhart. The oftener they 
thus met, the stronger their mutual attachment as 
Christians became. All the more anxious, therefore, 
did his father become to have him in a more acces- 
sible position than London. Various places in Scot- 
land were open to his son, and the father s heart was 
yearning for John's consent to occupy one of them. 
He did not urge him, but he expressed his strong 
desire, if it accorded with the Lord's will, that he 
would accept of a charge in the North. Many 
seconded the father's desire, and the request was 
carried by many Christians in the Highlands to the 
footstool of mercy. But while cherishing this desire, 
and just after sending him an offer of a presentation 
made by the patron of an excellent living, his father 
received the following letter : — 

" I had hoped, my dear father, that perhaps I 
might have heard from you again by this time, not 
that I had any reason for expecting it, further than 
that you had thrown out a hint to that effect in 
your last, but I know too well how your time is 
occupied to tax it even by expectations. I thank 
you for your affectionate and full letter of October 



256 



LETTER FROM HIS SON. 



13; it was refreshing and strengthening to me, and I 
can assure you, that in this scene of unintermitting 
warfare, I need every cordial you can send. Here I 
can never put off my armour in public or private — - 
Satan seems everywhere and in everything — in my 
flesh and in my spirit; in my closet and in my 
pulpit; in the house or on the street; in solitude or 
in company; in the committee, the session, the pres- 
bytery; in books, newspapers, or magazines; in the 
world or among Christians; it is alL one, Satan 
presses in and I must fight — truly, in London is the 
brunt of battle. No man that has not been in it 
can tell what it is. Yet I can, and do rejoice in the 
midst of it often. I have felt that I have been 
where the Lord called me to be. On this point I 
had a clear conscience and a strong heart, and what 
is infinitely more to me than man's judgment, I 
must say that I have had my Master's presence in 
such a measure at least, as to prove that he abode 
with one when others condemned me. 

" But, my dear father, the immediate object of my 
writing you just now is, again to unbosom myself to 
you as to that missionary working of my soul 
which I formerly mentioned, and to which I begged 
your attention. It has not yet forsaken me. For 
some months, say from August till October, when I 
was so incessantly occupied that I had not time to 
think of anything except my almost daily exercises, 
my mind seemed almost at rest as to the duty of 



THE CLAIMS OF MISSIONS. 



257 



remaining as I am. But for some weeks past, and 

especially for the last fortnight, I have, without 

seeking it, been stirred up night and day to revolve 

the subject in my mind — I have been doing nothing 

rashly — I have been pledging myself to nothing but 

determination to do the will of God when manifested 

to me — I have taken no outward step having a 

leaning one way or other — I have written out my 

thoughts at great length in the matter — I have 

endeavoured to search and lay bare my motives and 

aims — I have in prayer, effort, and purpose, I trust, 

laid everything, without exception, at the feet of 

Christ, and I am not conscious of wishing to recall 

my act. I may be deceiving myself, I may be 

deceived by Satan as an angel of light ; but if so, I 

wish to be undeceived. My prayer is — 1 Lord, 

undeceive me ! ' 

" Now, in this state of things, the result of six 

months' consideration, I feel myself, as it were, in 

conviction, making progress towards the point of 

presenting myself as a missionary, as an evangelist 

to the Church, to cany the rod of Christ's strength 

out of Zion to those nations who have not yet been 

visited by it. I feel pressing upon me as one the 

awful guilt of the Church of Christ as to the salvation 

of the perishing world — I feel that it is of little use 

to stand talking or preaching on this solemn subject 

unless some of us who talk and preach do something. 

Something must.be done by us who are to be lights 
d03) 17 



258 the church's selfishness. 

to the world and the Church. It has been so with 
you, my dear father ; you have seen the awful neglect 
of the Church as to the gospel at home; but you 
knew it was not enough to preach about it — you 
saw something must be done, and through the 
Lord's blessing you have done something — you have 
stood out against the judgment of a slumbering 
Church and her sleepy sluggards; and oh, how has 
the Lord honoured you with hundreds, perhaps 
thousands of converted souls as the seal of deeds done 
by a poor but faithful evangelist. And if, my dear 
father, the Lord has been bringing home to me the 
awful guilt of our Church in selfishly hoarding up 
within herself all the privileges of past years, and in 
cruelly murdering, by the privation of the word of 
life, millions of souls who (humanly speaking) might 
have heard and believed (as our Lord says of Tyre and 
Sidon, they would have repented) — if I have been 
exercised and wrought into a conviction that some- 
thing must be clone by me, ' who am less than the 
least of all saints/ to supply that which is lacking — 
how can I refuse to entertain this working of soul ? 
All that kind and partial friends may say about gifts, 
acceptance, usefulness, &c, seem only as an additional 
argument to go forward to dedicate them, if they 
exist, to a work that has hitherto been treated as 
unworthy of them, or as not at all needing: and if 
they do not exist, then am I not less fit than most 
who have been sent, It has hitherto been as a rule 



A TOUCHING APPEAL. 



2o0 



in the Church that no ordained, tried, or accepted 
minister, should think of carrying the gospel out of 
his own land ; but who has made this rule? Should 
it any longer exist? I know but too well how my 
wicked, deceitful heart is exposed to the workings of 
vanity and folly in this view of the subject. I 
trembled over that snare for nearly three months, 
but the Lord delivered me, and I can now contemplate 
the possibility of my taking a new and unusual step 
with comparative tranquillity. Oh, my father, pray 
for me. You know not how I have been tried and 
agitated in this matter ; not as to creature-ties — I 
have scarcely felt them affect me — but as to my duty 
to Christ, to stay or go. What is His will? How 
shall I discover it? There are many considerations 
that work on my mind on the one side or the other, 
and some of these I may be led to set before you, if 
you will venture to give me your mind on the subject 
as I now write. I know the delicacy of this request, 
and the difficulty of compliance with it ; but God 
may help you to say something. Forget that I am 
your son, think of me only as Christ's unworthy 
servant. Forget time; we have an eternity to spend 
together. Cast both of these elements out of the 
calculation. I am most wishful to hear from you, 
even were it only to say that you will say 
nothing." 

To this letter he sends the following reply, in 
which, notwithstanding of his attempt to deal im- 



260 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



partially with the question, the bias given to his 
judgment by his feelings as a father is evident: — 

" You wished me to state my views or arguments, 
pro and con, on the subject of your going to India. 
I wish you not to be swayed by any opinion I may 
offer on so weighty a matter, except in so far as it 
may appear to you, on Scripture grounds, and when 
weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, to be for or 
against the present bias of your mind ; and before 
stating my views I candidly confess to you that I 
feel it difficult to be divested of partiality in the 
matter. That which the apostle discovered and 
even cherished towards his countrymen and kinsmen 
according to the flesh (Rom. ix.), I would certainly 
wish to keep in view. But beyond this I would not 
wish to go a single step. I must also state to you 
that I have not been able to attain to what I might 
call scripture light or the Lord's mind in any specific 
way on the subject. This, it is true, may be owing 
to my not living near enough to the Lord. But 
whether it be so or not, or whether for wise purposes, 
He is pleased to withhold it, and therefore to put a 
restraint on my poor attempts, I cannot discover. 
But in the absence of this, while I would say with 
the apostle, concerning this thing I have no com- 
mandment of the Lord, I would also with him say, 
/ give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy 
of the Lord. I. Then, in offering you reasons in 
favour of your going to India, I think the following 



THE CALL FROM INDIA. 



201 



should weigh with you: — The deplorable state of 
the inhabitants, the fewness of labourers, and ; alas ! 
the fewness of those, and especially qualified persons, 
who seemed inclined to go to India. Also your own 
aptness for the work, say in point of talent, education, 
capacity of acquiring languages, simplicity of style, 
and manner of address. The proposal, too, made to 
you by the Assembly Committee ought to have its 
place, although the circumstance that the Committee 
had been made somehow aware of your views, was 
that which chiefly, if not wholly, prompted the 
application, on which account it becomes you to 
consider what weight to attach to it in the scales. 
But finally, and above all, the bent of your own 
mind and the exercises which the subject has 
occasioned j 7 ou for some time past — exercises which, 
I perceive, were deep and painful. That this thing 
was in thine heart, as I mentioned to you some 
time ago, may be of the Lord. And if it be his 
design that thou shouldst do all that is in thine 
heart, David shall then build the house; if not, he 
can raise up a Solomon for the purpose. Yet a 
David may prepare the materials and encourage this 
Solomon to embark in the work. So much for the 
pro; now for the con. 

"ILMyobjectionsagainstyour going to Indiaare: — 
1st. The severity of the climate. 2d. Your delicate 
constitution ; for though you are in general pretty 
healthy, you are by no means strong or robust, so as 



262 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



to bear the fatigues of a missionary life under a 
scorching sun. 3d. You should consider your time 
of life also: you are now thirty, and your constitution 
is by this time confirmed and tempered under the 
influence of your native climate, and a very different 
one from that of India. 4th. Consider the time and 
labour it will cost you to acquire the language so as 
to be able to preach to or instruct the natives in 
their own tongue. You might do something in this 
way in the English language, but that would be of 
little service to the natives. 5th. The voice of the 
Lord's people, both in your own congregation and 
here, so far as I could ascertain, seems to say you 
should remain in this country. They may be charged 
with a degree of partiality in this. Be it so, but 
some of them live near the throne, and the case 
merits consideration. 6th. I think the countenance 
which the Lord has given to your labours where you 
are should induce you to remain. Were he at any 
time to withdraw his countenance, and that your 
usefulness were likely to be at an end, then should 
be your time to think of removing. Often those 
who have acted otherwise have had cause to regret 
the change which they made. I admit that jouv 
case is somewhat different. But still it is doubtful 
how far a servant of the Lord in any case is justifi- 
able in leaving a flock in the midst of usefulness ; 
and if he should do so, without strong reasons 
indeed, and such as would more than counterbalance 



" THY WILL BE DONE." 



?C3 



the argument of usefulness, he might have reason to 
calculate, instead of a direct, upon an inverse ratio of 
usefulness. 7th. I might add that your country 
needs you, and that you appear to me, and to many 
besides, to be fully as much calculated to be useful 
at home as abroad. Souls are perishing in multitudes 
around us, and let such as are placed in spheres of 
usefulness occupy them. I am not against pitying 
the heathens abroad, but I am not for doing so at 
the expense of the heathens at home. Paul felt a 
laudable attachment to, and Christian pity for his 
countrymen beyond what he felt for the Gentiles; 
and it was not till the former rejected the gospel that 
he turned wholly to the latter. 

" Thus have I given you my sentiments freely and 
fully on this important subject, accompanied by my 
earnest prayer that the Great Head of the Church 
may soon clear your way, and make it manifest 
whether He designs work for you in India or in 
Britain. You can easily perceive the leaning of my 
mind, but I wish you not to be further led by it 
than it appears to you to be in accordance with the 
Law and the Testimony." 

In reply to later communications of his son's mind 
in reference to the call to India, he thus writes: — 

" I can assure you, my dear John, that if it be 
made clear to you that the matter cometh from the 
Lord, I wish for nothing else than that his will be 
dcma I have resigned you to him in baptism. I 



£64 LETTERS TO HIS SON. 

have often since prayed that you might he his. His 
you are, and not mine. And I am reconciled to it, 
that you serve him in any part of the world to which 
he may send you. I do not in this so much consult 
the feelings of a father, as those which should actuate 
me as a Christian and a minister of Christ, however 
short of the character or unworthy of the title I may 
be. My prayer for you is, that the Lord may make 
darkness light, and crooked paths straight, before you. 
And if he should make it appear by the light of his 
word and the leadings of his providence that he sends 
you far hence unto the Gentiles, may his presence 
and power accompany you, and crown j r our labours 
with ample success." 

The following extract still more clearly proves that 
he was emancipated from the influence of all conside- 
rations bearing on the question referred to him by 
his son, except such as should sway him as a Chris- 
tian, and as a servant of Jesus Christ : — 

" You have a better counsellor than man. To him 
I desire to commit you, and may he make darkness 
light and rough paths plain. In regard to the step 
which perhaps you are about to take (and which you 
must take if the Lord has said so), I have given you 
my mind already, and nothing has since occurred to 
me, either for or against the matter, that is worth 
mentioning. You were right to take the communi- 
cation from Edinburgh into your serious considera- 
tion ; a mere report, it is true, has given rise to it. 



THE CHRISTIAN FATHER. 



205 



But still, in your case, it is incumbent on you to as- 
certain whether the matter is of the Lord or not. 
And in this, notwithstanding paternal feelings and 
other considerations, I have been endeavouring to 
say unto him, £ Thy will be done! And to him 
I again commit you, and to the word of his 
grace/' 

In course of time he is informed of his son's deci- 
sion in favour of going to India, and to the letter 
conveying this intelligence he thus replies : — 

" Your last brought us tidings which we were in 
a measure prepared for. So you have decided for 
India. We would wish to say, and I trust we do 
say, ' The will of the Lord be done/ It is true your 
friends and well-wishers could not readily give their 
consent, and that for reasons which you will w r ell 
guess. But they are not against you on that account; 
and should they, it is your comfort to know, and to 
be able to say with the apostle, ' If God be for us, 
who can be against us?' May the Lord God of your 
fathers be with you, and give you ample success among 
the poor inhabitants of India." 

At last he writes : — 

" Your pamphlet has silenced us all. Those who 
take but a worldly view of matters may not feel 
convinced, but all spiritual Christians must. The 
Lord be with you in your intended mission, accept 
your labours among the poor heathen, and crown them 
with success. May he be your counsellor, your com- 



266 



LETTER TO HIS SON. 



forter, your support, and the breaker of the way be- 
fore you/' 

In reply to a letter received from his son, on his 
way to India, he writes : — ■ 

(i Your letter from the Cape, which reached us early 
in February, gladdened our hearts, and indeed the 
hearts of many besides. What cause of thankfulness 
to that God from whom all our mercies flow, that 
you and your dear partner were preserved on the 
mighty waters without sustaining any injury save 
some sea sickness, which few in such circumstances 
escape. It gave us comfort also to understand that 
your conviction that, in the step you have taken, j^ou 
followed the path of duty, remained unaltered, and 
seemed to be rather deepened than otherwise. This 
is but what I expected should be the case, and it is 
your mercy that it is so. In the day of trial — and 
with such a day you must lay your account — you 
can say with Jeremiah, 1 Have I desired the evil day?' 
Have I entered on these arduous labours, or rushed 
in the face of these trials of my own accord? Have 
I run uncalled, unsent by Thee ? You will experience 
much support under ever}?- untoward circumstance 
that may meet you in your way, and every opposi- 
tion from earth or hell which you may have to en- 
counter, from the conviction that the Lord had sent 
you. And he who has sent you has also said, ' My 
presence shall go with you.' Go on, then, my dear 
John, and prosper. May the God of your fathers 



MUTUAL AFFECTION. 



267 



be your God, and guide, and portion in a foreign 
land, and make you eminently useful in promoting 
his cause and propagating his gospel. Oh, may the 
Dagon of heathen idolatry be seen to fall before the 
ark of the Lord, borne by you, his unworthy, but I 
trust I may say, willing servant ! The tide of Chris- 
tian prayer in this country has followed you to India. 
This is a consolation, and shall be for a consolation." 

In his last letter to his son there is the following 
touching expression of his love : — 

"You may believe that it is not from want of af- 
fection for you that I do not write you often. No ; 
my bowels yearn over you whenever you come before 
my mind, and that, I must say, is often enough. I 
never bend the knee but I think of you, and endeav- 
our to remember you before my God. But my writ- 
ing time is over. My hand shakes, and gets stiff 
and heavy, so that it costs me much time and labour 
now to write a page; and, owing to the slowness of 
the pen, my ideas often make their escape, and leave 
me little to record. Yet I have great cause of thank- 
fulness: my general health is as usual, and the quan- 
tum of labour which I am enabled to go through, 
both at home and abroad, is at least at, if not above, 
par with me." 

His son responds in expressions of love no less 
fervent : — ■ 

" Although I cannot say that I am in debt to you 
as to letter-writing, yet I am always, and will be 



268 



TIDINGS OF HIS SON'S DEATH. 



ever, so much in debt to you on other grounds that 
I am always under obligation to write you when I 
can. Your picture is always on my wall, but it 
needed not so to be in order to remind me of you, 
for your better and more spiritual picture is ever in 
my soul ; and I have, I trust, fellowship with you in 
your faith, in your ministry, in our prayers, and in 
our common love of one Lord, and in our common 
hope of one heaven. The Lord, the Holy Spirit 
dwelling in you, put forth his divine energy in your 
soul, to comfort, strengthen, gladden you more and 
more ; and may you richty be filled, in your advanced 
years, with all the fulness of God ! This is my salu- 
tation to you, and what more can I ask or think ? 
Ask the same for me." 

In 1847, while Dr. Macdonald was on one of his 
preaching tours in Perthshire, and just before enter- 
ing the pulpit in Glenlyon, a letter is put into his 
hand. Intent on his work, he put the letter unopened 
into his pocket. Next day, as he was travelling to 
Edinburgh, he recollected the letter, and on opening- 
it read the tidings of his son's death. A few groans 
from a father's wounded heart, and a few tears from 
a fond father's eyes, and the Christian triumphed over 
the man, and with his heart he said, * It is well." 
On reaching home he preached from these words in 
his own pulpit. " ( It is well/ " he said, referring to 
his beloved John, "that he was born; 'it is well' 
that he was educated; it is better far that he was 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 269 

born again; ' it is well ' that he was licensed to preach 
the gospel : ' it is well ' that he was ordained as a 
pastor; * it is well' that he went to India; and 
above all, ' it is well ' for him that he died ; for thus, 
though away from us, and ' absent from the body/ 
he has secured the gain of being for ever with the 
Lord." 



CHAPTER XII. 



HIS ASSOCIATES AMONG THE MINISTERS OP THE NORTH — DR. BAYNE 
— MR. LACHLAN MACKENZIE — DR. MACKINTOSH — MR. FORBES — MR. 
MACADAM — MR. FRASER— DR. STEWART— MR. KENNEDY — ASSOCIA- 
TIONS. 

E early became intimate with all the emi- 
nent ministers of the north, exchanging 
respect and affection with them all, cheer- 
ing them often by his visits and his services, and in- 
variably assisting them on communion occasions. 

For Dr. Bayne of Kiltarlity he cherished the 
warmest affection with profound respect. He loved, 
in after years, to recall memories of his intercourse 
with him, and to relate notes of the sermons which 
he heard him preach. The two following anecdotes 
he often repeated. 

While seated with Dr. Bayne in his parlour one 
day, a servant entered the room, and by some awk- 
wardness so irritated her master, that in an eruption 
of temper, he poured a torrent of angry words on the 
head of the offending abigail. Mr. Macdonald waited 
till they were alone, and then, in a cheerful tone, he 
said, "I hope, Dr. Bayne, that by this time there is 
not much of old Adam in you, but, certainly, what 




DR. BAYNE. 



271 



remains is good stuff/' The rebuke thus kindly given 
was as kindly received. The old man rose from his 
seat, and, wringing his hands and weeping, paced the 
room, exclaiming, " Good stuff, indeed ; good stuff, 
indeed." 

In his latter days Dr. Bayne was in the habit of 
speaking his thoughts, so that one who was, -unawares, 
beside him, heard what was intended for no ears but 
his own. Standing at the window of his room one 
day, and thinking he was quite alone, one who hap- 
pened to be present heard him repeating the words, 
u This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- 
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners, of whom I am chief." After a pause he said, 
" Paul, what do you mean by saying that you are 
chief of sinners ? Do you mean that you are of all 
sinners, in all ages, chief ? If so, I cannot agree with 
you, for Ronald Bayne is a greater sinner than you 
were. But, do you mean that you are chief of all 
the sinners who shall be saved ? If so, then there is 
no hope for Ronald Bayne, for he is a greater sinner 
still. But, if you mean, as I think you do, that each 
saved sinner regards himself as chief, then there is 
hope for Ronald Bayne, and you and he can both 
agree." 

In 1816 he received from Mr. Lachlan Mackenzie 
an invitation to assist him in dispensing the sacra- 
ment of the Supper at Lochcarron. Mr. Lachlan's 
letter was quite characteristic. " I hear," he wrote, 



272 



MR. LACHLAN MACKENZIE. 



" that you keep a large store of powder which you 
use in blasting. I wish you to come and try your 
skill in breaking the hard rocks of Lochcarron." He 
accepted the invitation, and reached the manse of 
Lochcarron on the evening before the Fast-day, along 
with Dr. Eoss of Lochbroom, and Mr. Kennedy of 
Killearnan. Mr. Lachlan had been looking forward 
with great delight to the prospect of their visit and 
their services. He said to his sister, a few weeks 
before, "I have sent for Mr. Macdonald with the 
law, and for Mr. Kennedy with the gospel, and for 
Dr. Eoss with the learning, and I will come after 
them myself with prayer, and I think we shall have 
a good time of it." But at the eleventh hour his 
courage gave way. The tempter persuaded him that 
they would not come ; and when they arrived he 
was in bed, in one of his fits of unbelief. When his 
sister told him that they had come, he refused to 
believe her till she had sent Mr. Kennedy to his 
room. He then rose at once, came down in an 
ecstasy of joy to meet them, gave them a most fer- 
vent greeting, and hurried to the press for some 
refreshment to give them after their long journey. 
Having placed bread and spirits on the table, he said 
to Mr. Macdonald, " You are the stranger, and must 
ask a blessing." "No," he replied, "if you are to 
give us your good things give us a prayer with 
them." This he did at once in these words in 
Gaelic : " Tha fhios agad, a Thighearna, gun robh 



MR. LACHLAN MACKENZIE. 



273 



a namhaid ag innseadh dhuinne nctch d'thigeadh 
do sheirbhisich, agus gum bitheadh ball du air 
faobhar } ach gloir dhuit anis gun do chuir thu clack 
na chraos. Amen."* These words, being the first 
which Mr. Macdonald heard Mr. Lachlan utter in 
prayer, made a deep impression on his memory, and 
often did he repeat them afterwards. 

His opinion of Mr. Lachlan he gives in a letter to 
Mr. Sinclair, Thurso, written soon after his first visit 
to Lochcarron. " Mr. Lachlan/' he writes, " is worth 
going many miles to see. He is a dear servant 
of God ; and lives near Him at His footstool. He 
has failed much in body, but his mind is almost as 
vigorous as ever. He is truly a spiritually-minded 
Christian. He feels disheartened over the impenitence 
of Lochcarron sinners ; and indeed there are not 
many of a contrary description in his parish. Yet 
he cannot believe but the Lord ^has a design yet to 
do good to Lochcarron ; and he charged us who 
assisted him, and all the Lord's people, to carry 
Lochcarron on our spirits, and to pray much for his 
poor people. Worthy man, little did he seem to 
know that some of those whom he thus charged had 
more need that he should pray for them ! " 

Dr. Mackintosh, Tain, was another of the famous 
ministers of the north whom he regularly assisted 

* " Thou knowest, Lord, that the enemy was saying to us, Thy servants would 
not come, and that there would be a black spot on Thy cause; but now, glory be to 
Thee, Thou hast thrust a slone into his mouth. Amen." 
(103) lg 



274 



DR. MACKINTOSH. 



on communion occasions. They both exchanged 
their heart's best brotherly love; and the seasons 
"which they spent in working together in the service 
of the gospel were often to both of them refreshing. 
After Dr. Mackintosh's death Mr. Macdonald preached 
his funeral sermon in Gaelic, Mr. Forbes, Tarbat, 
officiating in English. The Gaelic text was, " I have 
kept the faith" (2 Tim. iv. 7). The following 
skeleton of the sermon was found among his 
papers, and it supplies his estimate of this man of 
God:— 

" The apostle here speaks, not in the language of 
self-boasting, but as a Christian hero, not intimidated 
by the scene before him. He desires to bear testi- 
mony for God, and to encourage Timothy, on whom 
the cause was more than ever to devolve, now that 
he was to be taken away. 

" Ver. 6, ( I am now ready to be offered.' He pro- 
bably expected martyrdom. Till now T , no man could 
touch his life. The servant of Christ was immortal 
till his time to die had come. But now he says, 
' The time of my departure is at hand/ This is a 
time that awaits every one. It is fixed by God ; 
and an important time it is. Paul, perhaps, had 
premonitions, if not a presentiment, of it. ( The 
time of his ( departure ' from a world of sin and suf- 
fering, and of his entrance on his rest in heaven, 
had ' come.' 

" Ver. 7, 1 1 have fought a good fight.' He fought 



FUNERAL SERMON. 



275 



for the faith, for the spread of the gospel, and for 
the prize of his high calling. He fought with sin, 
Satan, and the world, clad with all the armour of 
God. He fought the battle out under the banner of 
Christ. ' I have finished my course/ A course had 
been prescribed to him — a race had been set before 
him. This race he ran ' with patience/ ' forgetting 
the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto 
those things which are before/ He had now come to 
the end of the race, and, accordingly, he adds, — 

" Ver. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness/ To this his course and 
labours led, and this God had connected with them 
as a reward of grace. 

" But he adds, ' I have kept the faith/ This 
defined the course which he pursued, supported and 
stimulated him in it, and assured him of the crown 
at the end of it. By ' the faith 7 we are to under- 
stand, not the principle of faith — this is presupposed 
— but the doctrines on which faith rested (Jude 8), 
in short, the gospel. This he had received from the 
Lord, not merely to live upon it, but to preach it to 
others. The gospel may be called ' the faith/ because 
it is at once the foundation, support, and life of 
faith. When faith is in exercise the soul is en- 
grossed with the truth, which works effectually 
through faith in the heart. 

" I. Let us consider what is meant by the declara- 
tion ' I have kept the faith/ It implies-— 



276 



FUNERAL SERMON. 



"1. That he had cordially believed, and lived 
upon, the doctrines which he preached to others. 

" 2. That he lived under the influence of these 
doctrines — felt them — fed upon them. That they 
were the source of his hope, comfort, strength, and 
sanctification. 

" 3. That his walk and conversation were such as 
became the gospel. 

" 4. That he was enabled to preach the gospel to 
his fellow-men in purity, plainness, and fulness, and 
with perseverance, notwithstanding every opposi- 
tion. 

" 5. That he laboured with his might to promote 
the success of the gospel, accompanying it with his 
prayers ; standing up boldly in defence of the truth 
and against error ; anxious for the welfare of the 
Churches, and watering them as he had opportunity; 
careful to avoid giving offence ; and becoming all 
things to all men that he might gain some. 

" And thus he ' kept the faith.' 

" II. Consider what this language speaks to us 
on the present occasion. 

" The Lord has removed from us your late worthy 
pastor. Before you, who have attended his ministry 
for thirty-four years, I need scarcely expatiate on 
his character and labours. He was my first ac- 
quaintance in this county ; and I lived on terms of 
intimacy with him for thirty-three years. I lost in 
nim, not a friend or brother, but a father. Sincere 



FUNERAL SERMON. 



277 



and constant in his friendship ; cheerful, instructive, 
and spiritual in his conversation; he acquired a place 
in my affections which it is not likely shall be filled 
up on earth. He was the minister, the Christian, 
and the gentleman, commanding the esteem and the 
respect of all. Originally endowed with rare talents, 
divine grace, which visited him in early life, rendered 
him an able minister of the New Testament. And 
it might with truth be said, that ' the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant' to him 
through life. It was this that gave to his character 
excellence, lustre, and weight ; it was this that made 
him a truly great man. And, as a minister of J esus 
Christ, it may be said of him, as of Paul, that he 
1 kept the faith.' In his devotedness to the work of 
Christ, his acquaintance with law and gospel, his 
clear and comprehensive views of truth, and his bold, 
animated, impressive, and authoritative manner of 
delivering his message, he always appeared to me to 
bear a strong resemblance to the great apostle of the 
Gentiles. 

"He 'kept the faith.' He believed, loved, felt, 
and fed upon the doctrines of faith which he preached 
to others. He lived as became these doctrines, as a 
father, husband, and friend. His conversation was 
in heaven. He preached the gospel to saints and 
sinners faithfully and purely, with authority and 
with tenderness. He spoke to the understanding 
and to the heart at once. He preached doctrinally 



27S 



MR. FORBES. 



and experimentally, but the one as arising out of the 
other. Like Paul, he laboured to promote the suc- 
cess of the gospel, by prayer, by a holy life, by boldty 
opposing error and reproving sin, by his visiting and 
catechizing, and by zeal for the spread of the gospel 
in the world. And he persevered unto the end in 
his zeal, spirituality, faithfulness, and activity. He 
did not wish to survive his usefulness, nor did he. 
You heard his last discourse fourteen days before his 
death. Thus he ' kept the faith/ He is at his rest ; 
he has received his crown ; he is with Paul, with 
Christ, for ever. To him death was gain; but from 
us it has removed his prayers, his labours, and his 
influence. 

" And let us remember that, if he ' kept the faith/ 
it now devolves on us and others to do so. Let us 
be ' followers of them who through faith and patience 
inherit the promises/ He is dead, but ' the faith ' 
shall never die. 

" How have you improved your opportunities 
under his ministry ? Not a few, I trust, have been 
converted, and others edified. Let these bless God, 
even while they weep. Bat others have stood out 
against e the faith ' till now. How dreadful the state 
of these!" &c. 

He early became intimate with Mr. Forbes of 
Tarbat, and often preached in his church. He highly 
valued him for his vigorous intellect, his unques- 
tioned godliness, his thorough honesty, and the rare 



MR. MACADAM. 



279 



clearness, unction, and finish of Lis sermons; and of 
all who met him Mr. Macdonald best succeeded in 
evoking his cheerfulness and love. During a com- 
munion season at Resolis he and Mr. Forbes, owing 
to the large number of visitors in the manse, occu- 
pied the same bedroom. Mr. Forbes, who seldom 
enjoj^ed a good night's rest, and who feared that 
this one would to him be a sleepless night, wished 
to employ one of its long hours in conversation with 
his bed-fellow. Addressing him after they lay down, 
he was answered by a snore; pushing him awake, 
he made a second attempt to engage him in a crack, 
but failed as before. " I go to bed to sleep," his 
companion said, " and I must sleep from a sense of 
duty/' and then resumed his snoring. After many 
vain attempts to follow his friend's example, Mr. 
Forbes was early astir. Meeting James Thomson, 
the catechist, on going out in the morning, he said 
to him, ({ The minister of Ferintosh is the most 
extraordinary man I ever met. He sleeps better, 
and he preaches better, than all others." 

Mr. Macadam, Nigg, was one whom he highly 
valued, and of whom he often loved to speak. Mr. 
Macadam lived for six years after Mr. Macdonald came 
to Urquhart, and during that time Mr. M. often 
preached in his pulpit. On one occasion he w 7 as 
engaged to preach in Nigg on a week-day, on his 
return from the communion at Tarbat. At the 
appointed hour the congregation met, but the 



280 



MR. FRA.SER, KIRKHILL. 



preacher did not appear. He had started from 
Tarbat in good time, but lost his way, and wandered 
for two hours in search of it. It was past two 
o'clock in the afternoon before he began the service. 
Just as he was announcing his text, a godly man 
from Petty, who had been in great distress for many 
weary weeks before, entered the church. The text 
was Ps. lxxxix. 1 3. The words, " Thou hast a mighty 
arm," as they were read by the preacher, came with 
power to his heart, his bonds were loosed, his long- 
lost songs were given back to his broken heart; and 
when the service was over, he went on his way home 
rejoicing. 

Mr. Donald Fraser of Kirkhill was another of the 
eminent ministers of the North with whom he often 
associated in the service of the gospel. To rare 
personal beauty, remarkable elegance of manner, 
great acuteness of intellect, and refinement of taste, 
divine grace added its saving gifts to prepare him 
for a place of eminence in the house of God. As a 
preacher he was acceptable to all classes of hearers. 
His manner, always chaste, was sufficiently earnest; 
his statements of doctrine, invariably exact, were 
aptly illustrated; and there was always the due 
proportion of the subjective in his preaching; for he 
did not forget that his hearers had hearts and con- 
sciences as well as understandings. 

The air of refinement which marked Mr. Fraser's 
personal appearance laid him open to the suspicion 



ME. FRASEK, KIRKHILL. 



281 



by strangers of his paying undue attention to dress, 
and especially to the arrangement of his beautiful 
hair. The first time he went to assist Dr. Kidd of 
Aberdeen on a communion occasion, he arrived at a 
late hour on the night before the Fast. Next morn- 
ing the Doctor, always punctual, was ready to begin 
family worship at the appointed minute; but though 
the bell had been rung once and again, Mr. Fraser 
failed to appear. After exhausting his host's pa- 
tience, he at last entered the room where the family 
were assembled. Dr. Kidd's eye rested at once on 
the well-adjusted hair, and, fretted as he was, he 
easily persuaded himself the delay was owing to the 
care expended upon it by his guest. Full of this 
prejudice he went to church, resolved not to like the 
preacher, and expecting no good from the sermon. 
The text was announced, and as the preacher began to 
open it up, Dr. Kidd's listlessness began to give way. 
As the sermon advanced, his attention was thoroughly 
arrested. At last, listening in an ecstasy of delight, 
he exclaimed, in a tone loud enough to be heard by 
all around him — " I'll never judge a man by his hair 
again." 

After Mr. Fraser's death Mr. Macdonald was 
asked to preach his funeral sermon — a sad duty he 
was repeatedly called to perform, as one after another 
of his fathers and brethren was removed to his rest. 
Referring to the suddenness of Mr. Fraser's death, 
he said — " The Lord would leave His servant no 



282 



DE. STEWART. 



longer away from Himself ; and unwilling to refuse 
the request of His people, to whose hearts Mr. Fraser 
was so dear, He removed him suddenly, that they 
might have no opportunity of praying for his life." 

Mr. Stewart of Dingwall, afterwards Dr. Stewart 
of the Canongate, Edinburgh, was his next neigh- 
bouring minister. A short ferry only separated 
their parishes, and their manses, opposite to each 
other, were only a short distance from each shore. 
Their intercourse was always brotherly, for two more 
amiable men there could scarcely be ; and over every 
cause of alienation which might threaten to divide 
them, the love of Christ in their hearts never failed 
to triumph. In his papers there is the following 
note: — "Preached at Dingwall on an average once 
a month in Mr. Stewart's time, from January 1816 
to October 1819, when Mr. Stewart went to Edin- 
burgh. Collections then made for the Subscription 
School." Nor did his labours in Dingwall cease 
when Mr. Stewart was translated to Edinburgh, for 
to the preceding note he adds — " Preached at Ding- 
wall also from October 1820 (some time after Mr. 
Bethune's settlement) once a month, to January 
1824, a course of lectures on Romans x. ; from Janu- 
ary to December 1824, on promiscuous subjects; on 
Christmas and New Years Day, O.S., 1824, preached 
from Eccles. xi. ; and on Christmas and New Year's 
Day 1 825, on Eccles. xii. 1. Since this last date 
agreed to preach at Dingwall in future on the third 



DTI. STEWART. 



283 



Tuesday of every month, Mr. John Kennedy having 
engaged to preach once a month on the first. On 
Christmas Day, O.S., 1826, preached from Eccles. 
xii. 4 — " All the daughters of music shall be brought 
lovv. , ' 

Mr. Stewart's health having failed in 1819, he 
was under the necessity of going to Edinburgh to 
obtain medical advice. This was to his flock and 
brethren, as well as to himself and family, a painful 
trial. Mr. Macdonald composed a few stanzas in 
Gaelic on this occasion, entitled " Dr. Stewart on his 
Voyage to Leith," which were afterwards published. 
" These verses/' he writes in a preface to the poem, 
" were composed when Dr. Stewart went by sea to 
Edinburgh for the benefit of his health. The author 
observing the vessel passing, and Dr. Stewart on 
deck, the following thoughts arose in his mind: — 

" Thou trim, fast, little ship, let such wind come 
to fill thy sails as shall carry Mr. Alexander Stewart 
to Leith in safety! Let no storm nor calm over- 
take thee, nor aught that can cause danger or 
damage; but go safely on thy way till the place of 
his desire is reached! Thou bearest a precious trea- 
sure, the first and the choicest of pastors, who led 
his flock to pastures where they might find rest and 
food; a man whose, appearance and endowments 
commanded respect; a ripe Christian and a gentle- 
man. Oh, it is hard to trust him to a board! But 
do Thou, who rulest in power over storms and seas 



284 



DR. STEWART. 



alike, and who hast been set up for us on Zion a 
rightful king for ever, uphold him by the hand of 
thy righteousness; give him deliverance, and in the 
depths of thy pity preserve him from the dangers of 
sea and wind ! Do Thou, who didst heal each one 
who came to Thee diseased in the days of thy pil- 
grimage and sufferings in the flesh, make effectual 
the means which physicians may prescribe, that he 
may return from Dunedin free from all pain and 
sickness. Inverpeffer is sad since thou art gone 
away, as if her sun had set and the shade of night 
had compassed her. No wonder. A star of beauty 
and brightness has now forsaken her sky, w T hich gave 
her light for many years. Some, doubtless, are 
grieved — being knit to thee in love, the strength of 
which they cannot tell to others — because they fear 
that since thou art gone to sea they shall behold 
thee no more, and that thou never shalt return. 
Sad indeed shall we be if thou comest not back from 
Dunedin again ! Many an eye shall be tearful, and 
many a heart shall be rent among thy people. Blind 
and insensate must they be who will not feel the 
pain of such a stroke. But if the King of kings 
hath appointed — for He doeth according to His 
pleasure — that there thou shalt remain, and in the 
North appear no more, may prosperity and health 
be thine. May Christ, thy Beloved, be with thee 
throughout thy journey in the wilderness, though we 
to-day are sad without thee!" 



ME. KENNEDY. 



285 



The next parish to Urquhart on the south is Kil- 
learnan. Mr. Kennedy was inducted there only a 
few months before Mr. Macdonald's translation to 
Urquhart. For seven and twenty years they 
laboured as pastors side by side; as preachers they 
were often associated in the service of the gospel; 
and as evangelists they often travelled on the same 
tours, and often divided between them the work of 
a communion season; and during all that time their 
intercourse was invariably confidential and pleasant. 
His last effort in composition was writing an elegy 
in memory of his friend, Mr Kennedy, of which he 
once said to the writer — " If I have not succeeded 
in my description of your father, I myself have 
profited by the attempt; for this I can say, that each 
stanza which I wrote sent me at least once to my 
knees/' 

In 1831 an association for prayer and conference 
was formed by a few of the evangelical ministers of 
the North. Meetings of this association were regu- 
larly held for ten years, and were always to the mem- 
bers refreshing and profitable. 

The following " regulations of the ministerial asso- 
ciation " were written by Mr. Fraser, Kirkhill : — 

4 'Auldearn, 5th Oct. 1831. 

" An association for the purpose of promoting the 
object of their high calling, having been formed by 
the following ministers, namely, Mr. Kennedy of 



286 



ASSOCIATION FOR PRAYER. 



Killearnan, Mr. Macdonald of Urquharfc, Mr. Fraser 
of Kirkhill, Mr. Sage of Resolis, Mr. Barclay of Auld- 
earn, and Mr. Fraser of Cawdor, the following regu- 
lations were agreed on: — 

" 1. The main object of the association shall be, to 
seek, by prayer and the reading of the Scriptures, 
the influences of the Spirit of God upon the members 
themselves, their families and congregations, and the 
Church of Christ at large; and two diets for that 
purpose shall be held at each meeting. 

" 2. The diets for prayer and reading the Scrip- 
tures, at each meeting, shall hold — the first from two 
to four o'clock, and the second from six to eight, and 
the remainder of the time shall be spent in such con- 
versation as shall tend to mutual improvement ; it 
being understood that argumentative discussion or 
controversy is to be carefully avoided. 

" 3. There shall be three meetings of the associa- 
tion within the year; namely, on the third Wednesday 
of September, on the third Wednesday of December, 
and on the third Wednesday of March ; it being con- 
sidered that, owing to the various engagements of 
some of the members, it would be inconvenient or 
impracticable to hold a meeting in the summer 
quarter. 

" 4. The meetings shall be held at the houses of 
the respective members in the following order: 
namely, at the manses of Auldearn, Cawdor, Kirk- 
hill, Killearnan, Urquhart, and Resolis; and the 



MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 



287 



minister at whose house the meeting is to hold shall 
write to the other members to remind them of it a 
fortnight or three weeks beforehand. 

"5. The member at whose house the meeting 
holds shall open the first diet by reading a portion 
of the Word of God, and by prayer, and the other 
members shall follow him in the same exercises in 
the order laid down in the foregoing regulation. 

" 6. The number, six, of which the association at 
present consists, being considered as many as can be 
conveniently accommodated in one house, or employed 
at one meeting, no addition is to be made to the 
number; but in case of a vacancy occurring, it shall 
be filled up only with the unanimous consent of the 
existing members. 

(Signed) " John Kennedy. 

John Macdonald. 
Donald Fraser. 
Donald Sage. 
William Barclay. 
Alexander Fraser." 

At an earlier period a missionary association was 
formed by the leading evangelical ministers of the 
North, holding annual meetings at Inverness, Ding- 
wall, and Tain, alternately. On these occasions ser- 
mons were preached in English and Gaelic ; large 
congregations assembled, and very liberal collections 
were raised. In some parishes there were auxiliary 
associations. From an early date in Mr. Calders 



268 



THE FRUITS AND STRENGTH OF EVANGELISM. 



ministry there was such an association in Urquhart, 
and it continued in operation till missionary schemes 
were formed by the Church. During the year the 
sum of £50 was usually raised for missionary pur- 
poses in Urquhart. 

Associations, for prayer and for missionary objects, 
are the invariable fruits of evangelism. They also 
contribute to its strength: for, as united prayer con- 
nects it closely with divine resources, a missionary 
spirit, by expanding its aspirations, enlarges its capa- 
city to receive. Evangelism is not like a tree, which 
may spend its strength in bearing fruit; but like a 
stream from an exhaustless fountain, widening its 
channel, and thereby increasing its volume, as it 
flows. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



TRIAL— DISRUPTION TIMES— INVERNESS ASSEMBLY. 

N 1842 he met the sorest of all his trials. 
After a faithful ministry of six-and-thirty 
years; having won, by the extent, accept- 
ability, and success of his labours, the designation of 
" The Apostle of the North ; " long the foremost re- 
presentative of evangelism in the Highlands; just on 
the eve of the Disruption, and as he was entering on 
his share of the preparation for that great event; 
while his fame was yet undimmed and his usefulness 
still unimpaired ; and as his work on earth was now 
drawing to a close; a vile slander is cast upon his 
name, and he appears before his presbytery to vin- 
dicate himself. 

This trying event his biographer cannot ignore. 
The providence is too remarkable to be left unnoticed. 
The hand of God wrought strangely, and we must 
observe and record His doing. His strange dealing 
with His servant is fraught with instruction, and it is 
the duty of others to learn, at his expense, the lessons 
taught by his affliction. It might, too, seem to some, 
if this chapter were left unwritten, as if there were 

(103) 1$ 




290 



HE IS FALSELY ACCUSED. 



something attaching to the name of Dr. Macdonald 
which could not bear the light. And yet, much 
must be left unnoticed, which, if known, would make 
his vindication still more complete, and show to all 
his fame unsullied. But the meagre share of detail 
that shall be given will suffice to show how baseless 
was the calumny by which it was sought to blast his 
reputation. 

An unmarried woman, accustomed, as many were, 
to follow him as a hearer from place to place, and re- 
garded by him, and by many others, as one earnestly 
anxious to profit by the gospel, became the mother 
of a child. Anxious, notwithstanding of her shame- 
ful fall, to retain her reputation as a Christian, or 
resolved to drag down along with her some one who 
was famous in the Church, she charged, first an emi- 
nent Christian layman, and afterwards Dr. Macdonald, 
with being associated in her guilt. In a critical hour 
an acknowledgment was emitted by her, which, if true 
and unretracted, would have placed her liberty and 
life in peril. This made the case one from investi- 
gating which all shrunk instinctively. The secret 
was left in its envelope of darkness ; and those 
who loved and respected the Lord's servant would be 
content if he were vindicated. The terrible dilemma 
in which the woman's sin had placed her was 
such that one cannot wonder at the desperateness 
of the choice she made. By her fall she became 
a helpless victim in the grasp of the great enemy, 



THE LOUD IS HIS REFUGE. 



291 



and took what seemed the easier of the only alterna- 
tives between which she was allowed to choose. All 
must be sacrificed which she counted worth possess- 
ing, or she must attempt to blast the reputation of 
another — these were the alternatives, and she chose 
the latter. 

The report flew on rapid wings in. all directions, 
for " the prince of the power of the air " did his ut- 
most to circulate the lie, which, as "the accuser of 
the brethren/' he had forged. There were not want- 
ing some who rejoiced in the prospect of the great 
evangelist's crown of honour beino; cast into the mire. 
On the minds of a few, who loved the cause of Christ 
find were wont to love and respect his servant, the 
tempter wrought mightily to disturb their peace ; 
and many, who were assured of the falsehood of the 
charge, were stunned by the startling providence, 
grieved for the suffering of one whom they loved 
and honoured, and anxious as to how the foul calumny 
might affect the minds of men, the honour of the 
gospel, and the work of Christ. 

To himself the Lord was very gracious. Conscious 
of innocence, regarding the attack upon his character 
as an ebullition of revenge from hell, and recognising 
the providential trial as a sovereign and wise though 
mysterious appointment of the Almighty, he cast him- 
self at the feet of his Saviour and Master, committing 
his name and influence to his care, and imploring his 
help against this attempt to drive him from the ser- 



202 



BEFORE THE PRESBYTERY. 



vice of the gospel. The Lord verily heard his cry, and 
he was to him then "a very present help in trouble." 
" Often," he said, " when alone in my study, the re- 
membrance of the trial w T ould break in as an over- 
whelming flood on my heart; but, casting myself on 
my face before the Lord, he restored his peace to my 
soul, and helped me to resume my work. This much," 
he added, " must I acknowledge to the praise of the 
Lord, that never did he allow my mind to be dis- 
turbed by it while I was in the pulpit." 

When aware of the charge having been brought 
against him, he at once insisted on the matter being 
taken up by his presbytery. This painful duty his 
brethren undertook. The accuser Was summoned 
and examined, but so utterly baseless was her case, 
and so manifestly false her story, that the court had 
no difficulty in declaring the accused free from all sus- 
picion in connection with the charge preferred against 
him. This result did not arise out of the partiality 
of his brethren. There was one member of court who 
did not conceal his anxiety to criminate him if pos- 
sible ; and who, when there appeared not the shadow 
of a shade of evidence in support of the charge, could 
not veil his annoyance. Abashed and mortified he 
rose and left the court before the verdict of ac- 
quittal was written. But in the face of the proved im- 
possibility of his co-presbyter's guilt he still continued 
to circulate the calumny against him, sanctioned the 
baptism of the accuser's child, if he did not com- 



THE SCHEME OF REVENGE. 



293 



nrit the sacrilege of performing the ceremony, and 
advised to brand the name of John Macdonald by 
attaching it to the offspring of crime ! 

Most manifestly wrought the hand of Satan in this 
affliction of the servant of the Lord. Long had Mr. 
Macdonald laboured in the service of the gospel, and 
many were the breaches which he was the means of 
making in the enemy's ranks. We cannot wonder, 
therefore, though a council should be held in hell to 
concoct a plot of vengeance. To blast his reputa- 
tion as a Christian would tend to disparage all his 
work as an evangelist, and to destroy all the influ- 
ence for good which he had hitherto been wielding. 
A crisis, too, had come in the contest for the crown 
rights of Jesus, and it would be a gain to the enemy 
if, ere the conflict made further progress, one so 
zealous and so powerful could be laid low, for in all 
the North there was none so likely to " do valiantly " 
for Christ. There were always with him, as he went 
on his preaching tours, some on whom the great enemy 
could count to do him service. By using one of 
these to raise the calumny a double object would be 
gained — a seeming sample of the power of the gospel 
would be exposed as a palpable counterfeit, and the 
victim of deceit and cruelty would become a ready 
instrument of vengeance. This has always been the 
policy of Satan, ever since he found, among the twelve 
disciples of the Lord, one disposed to do his foul 
bidding, when, working on his love of money, he 



294 



THE MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 



moved him to betray his Master. There were verily 
" depths of Satan " in this plot against the reputation 
of " the Apostle of the North." The dilemma of the 
wretched woman was a deep device. Her previous 
intimacy with the accused furnished a semblance of 
plausibility to the charge, for each time she had an 
interview with him regarding eternal things might be 
alleged as an opportunity of crime. If in the pres- 
bytery an abettor of the calumny could be secured'; 
if into the hearts of some of the true people of the 
Lord suspicion and distrust could be infused; and if, 
even in his own congregation, some could be found 
prepared to believe and circulate the lie, who were 
known to have professed before to love and venerate 
their minister, Satan might expect success in his at- 
tempt to disable the servant of the Lord for his 
Master's work. Such was the enemy's design ; and 
such was the development of his plot. 

But the Lord permitted this assault of the enemy; 
and there were wisdom, holiness, and mercy wrapt 
up in the mystery of this providence. It was need- 
ful to teach His servant some lessons even at the 
cost of such a fiery trial. He may have been unduly 
elated by the devotion of the people who followed 
him on his gospel tours ; he was too ready to receive 
their professions of godliness; his charity was too 
indiscriminating ; and he was too easy of access; and 
this trial may have been the rod by which these 
faults were corrected. It may have appeared to 



THE FORMIDABLE TRIAL. 



295 



himself inexplicable, as it did to others, why the 
Lord should have exposed his character to reproach, 
when he was so closely connected with His own 
cause and glory ; but the very mysteriousness of 
such a providence was instructive. "Be still, and 
know that I am God," was the voice that issued from 
its darkness. And this outburst of Satan's power 
served to teach him how careful His Master must 
have been of his character during the past years 
of his ministry. There were communings then, 
between the Lord and His servant, which can- 
not now be unveiled ; but, judging from occa- 
sional expressions, there is good ground for saying 
that he learned all these lessons in that day of 
trial. 

Such a trial as this is formidable indeed; but 
what follower of Christ can reckon on avoiding it ? 
Against them whom the Lord hath blessed "all 
manner of evil" may be spoken "falsely." The 
wildest license may be taken by the world in dealing 
with the reputation of the servants of the Lord. 
And they must not complain of this. Let them be 
silent and submit, when they remember how it fared 
with their Master who was " holy, harmless, undeflled, 
and separate from sinners." If they knew not such 
a trial, they would lose much of the sweetness which 
can be tasted by faith in the doctrine of the final 
judgment. To the court of last resort these sufferers 
from the world's reproach must raise their appeal 



296 



MR. GRAHAM OF ARDCLACH. 



from the bar of the world's assize,, and, with a clear 
conscience and a good hope through grace, anticipate 
an acquittal that shall vindicate their character before 
an assembled universe. 

There was a parallel case well known in the north. 
The famous Mr. John Graham of Ardclach suffered 
under a similar trial. Unmarried and leading a re- 
tired and holy life, the wicked made him the victim 
of the foulest calumny. In the house in which he 
lodged there was a young woman who chose to think 
that Mr. Graham should be her husband. Finding 
it impossible to receive any encouragement, notwith- 
standing her assiduous attentions, she resolved to 
have revenge if she failed to have a husband. She 
began to drop hints in conversation with her neigh- 
bours of Mr. Graham's being too fond of ardent 
spirits. Having access in his absence to his room 
she put a bottle under his pillow, and then brought 
some of her neighbours in to see it there. The 
fama spread; and not a few believed it. 

It was Mr. Graham's invariable habit to spend 
the Sabbath morning, from a very early hour, in a 
secluded and shaded spot within the wood on the 
margin of which stood the cottage in which he lodged. 
He required to carry with him a supply of cold water 
when he went to his study in the wood. Instead of 
a jug or other vessel, a bottle would be given him, 
which he, unsuspecting, carried in his hand, and 
placed on the trunk of a tree at the end of his 



THE TEMPTER BAFFLED. 



297 



accustomed walk. Some of those who were still 
indisposed to believe the report would be conducted 
within sight of the bottle, and would retire with 
confirmed suspicions. 

There lived, in Moy, a godly man, who never 
missed an opportunity of hearing Mr. Graham, and 
to whom the Sabbath in the church of Ardclach was 
usually a season spent at the very gate of heaven. 
The lying story reached him. After being through- 
out the week tormented by suspicions, on Sab- 
bath the power of the gospel would banish all his 
fears. But when the impression of the Sabbath 
service had abated the Tempter would be at work 
in his mind again. Hearing the story of the bottle 
in the wood, he resolved to test the truth of it. 
Travelling all night he came at a very early hour to 
Mr. Graham's place of retirement. The minister w T as 
there before him. From behind a tree he watches 
him. He sees him walking leisurely on his usual 
path; and on the trunk of a tree at the end of his 
beat, he observes the bottle. After an interval the 
minister stops, lifts the bottle in his hand, and applies 
it to his mouth. The Tempter then suggested to the 
watcher, that, as he had now seen with his own eyes 
a confirmation of the report, he should return home at 
once, and never listen to that drunkard again. But, 
instead of yielding, he rushed forward while Mr. 
Graham was in the act of drinking, and seizing hold of 
the bottle, he asked, with desperate energy of voice, 



298 



" TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED." 



" What have you there ? " Mr. Graham, recovering 
from the shock which the man's rashness gave him, 
meekly said, "Just try it." The man instantly 
placed the bottle to his lips, and the cold water 
flowed into his mouth. Ashamed of having yielded 
to the Tempters power, he almost cast himself on 
his knees before the man of God, asking his forgive- 
ness, and explaining his strange conduct. The cold 
water from Mr. Graham's bottle was the sweetest, 
he said, which he had ever tasted; but sweeter 
still by far the "good news from the far country/' 
preached in the church that day to his " thirsty soul." 

But the report continued to circulate, and many 
believed it. The result was that Mr. Graham 
removed from Ardclach and forsook the Church of 
Scotland. In his new position he pined for a few 
months, and then sickened and died. Referring to 
his accusers shortly before his death he said, adopting 
the words of Moses, " If these men die the common 
death of all men, or if they be visited after the 
visitation of all men ; then the Lord hath not sent 
me" (Num. xvi. 29). But the Lord had sent him; 
and his enemies were visited by startling judgments ; 
and by uncommon deaths were swept off one by one. 
By fatal accidents, by mania, and by suicides, the 
Lord manifested His anger, and branded the names of 
those who persecuted His servant. It was an awful, 
but an ample vindication, the Lord gave, in His 
providence, of the character of this afflicted saint, 



" DO MY PROPHETS NO HARM." 



299 



As in the case of Mr. Graham, there was a terrible 
vindication of the character of Mr. Macdonald; and 
so legible is the writing by the finger of God on the 
page of providence that none unblinded by prejudice 
can fail to read it. There are many who demur to 
any attempt to interpret providence. Dissociating 
its movements from the presence and the power both 
of heaven and of hell, they feel no interest in the 
aspect, and can derive no instruction from the events, 
of providence. But, if it so happened, that his 
accuser was, ever since his death, a raving maniac, 
shut up with a sister, who shared her confinement 
and her madness, their brother acting as their keeper; 
that her father, who encouraged her in her falsehood, 
was suddenly struck down by death, but not until 
he had confessed his sin to his minister and asked 
his forgiveness; that the family in which the calumny 
was chiefly fostered, was singled out, from all the 
families around, by a disease, unique in its symptoms 
and irresistible in its progress, and that one^ after 
another was smitten by it, till within a few days five 
or six dead bodies were carried out of that household 
to the grave; that one, to whom his position and 
character gave considerable influence, and whose 
conduct tended to produce in other minds the 
suspicion, which he led them to think was in his 
own, spent the last months of his life feeding his 
remorse by memories of the past w T hile despairing in 
prospect of the future; that another, who made her- 



300 



HIS DEGREE OF D.D. 



self notorious by giving shelter and encouragement 
to the accuser, spent her last weeks in fetters; and 
that the happy home, into which the member of 
presbytery returned, on the day on which he had 
done his utmost in support of the accusation, soon 
became the scene of successive afflictions, till he him- 
self, left widowed and almost childless by a series of 
stunning deaths, passed his last days in misery ; 
would not even these hesitate to deny that such 
incidents taught us something ; and would not he 
be unenviably bold, who, in the face of such a series 
of providences, would still dare to circulate the ca- 
lumny, by which enemies sought to brand with 
dishonour the name of the servant of the Lord ? 

It was in 1842 he received the degree of D.D. 
It was granted to him by the University of the city 
of New York. It was from themselves, rather than 
from him, the universities of his native land with- 
held the honour, by neglecting to award him this 
degree. By dunning and dining an influential 
professor, some men have won the honour from a 
Scottish university in other days, and, as a memorial 
and explanation of their success, been allowed to 
append D.D. to their names thereafter. By long, 
long digging into musty tomes for lore, which they 
spread over pages that were never read, others have 
earned a degree as a reward of labour; and in 
remembrance of their toil, as well as in token of 
honour, they write LL.D. after their name in future. 



PRE-DISRUPTION WORK. 



301 



But a man, whom the Lord highly honoured, whose 
fame was in all the Churches, whose talents and 
attainments were remarkable, whose eloquence was 
universally acknowledged, and who, if he had less 
than some theologians of useless lore, had above 
almost all other divines skill to work for the Church's 
good, would receive no honour even from the uni- 
versity in whose classes he was once a distinguished 
student. 

The ten years' conflict was now coming to a crisis. 
With zeal unabated and power unimpaired Dr. 
Macdonald devoted himself to the work of preparing 
the Highland congregations for the approaching 
Disruption of the Church. The following journal, 
written by the late Mr. Allan of Kincardine, who 
accompanied him on two tours in Sutherland, will 
show the amount of work done by him for the 
Church at this critical period: — 

" Journal of a trip to Sutherlandshire by Eev. Dr. 
Macdonald of Urquhart, and Rev. H. Allan, appointed 
by the Convocation Committee to communicate in- 
formation to the people on the present position of the 
Church, in January 1843 :— 

u Tuesday, Jan. 1 7. — Arrived at the manse of Kin- 
cardine to breakfast, and preached that day at Creich 
(Rev. Murdo Cameron's), and addressed the congre- 
gation on the important objects of the present mission. 
The people very attentive and apparently deeply 
interested. 



302 JOURNAL. 

"Wednesday, 18. — Proceeded in the morning to 
Lairg. Mr. M'Gillivray received us kindly. Preached 
in his church to a crowded audience. After which 
explained the position of the Church and her present 

prospects. 

"Thursday, 19. — Proceeded through Strathfleet 
amidst wreaths of snow, just on the wane, to Rogart. 
Called at the manse ; Mr. Mackenzie, minister, from 
home. Preached in the open air in a corner of the 
parish of Dornoch, indenting his parish, and near his 
church, to an audience of about fifteen hundred, who 
seemed to listen with deep attention and interest. 
Immediately after the addresses, the work of signing 
commenced — a worthy and venerable elder (John 
Sutherland, above ninety) having led the van. That 
evening proceeded to Rhives, where we were most 
kindly received by Mr. and Mrs. Gunn. 

" Friday, 20. — Took a trip to Clyne and Loth to 
make arrangements for future operations, and returned 
in the evening to our good quarters at Rhives, after 
having settled to preach on Saturday at Helmsdale, 
and Sabbath at Clyne. Had a meeting in the even- 
ing with the elders of Golspie. Were led to expect the 
minister of Golspie's pulpit, but had a note of refusal 
from him next morning. 

"Saturday, 21st Jan. — After an early breakfast, 
started for Helmsdale, where a congregation of fourteen 
or fifteen hundred were waiting us. Preached in 
English and Gaelic, and addressed them in each of 



TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. 303 

these languages. The audience here also deeply in- 
terested in the business of the day. Returned in the 
evening to Clyne manse, and were concerned to find 
Mr. Mackay laid up in consequence of a severe accident. 

"Sabbath, 22. — Preached in the churchyard (Clyne) 
to an immense congregation, not under three thousand. 
Spent the evening chiefly with Mr. Mackay at his 
bedside. 

"Monday, 23. — In consequence of previous notice, 
the people assembled in order to an explanation of 
the position of the Church. Not less than two 
thousand five hundred were present, several of whom 
were from neighbouring parishes. Marked attention 
given to the sermons and addresses. Returned in 
the evening to our hospitable friends at Rhives. 

" Tuesday, 24. — Not having had permission to preach 
in Golspie, met with the people in the open air on 
the Links, where a commodious and comfortable, tent 
was erected for us, and where the greater part of the 
parishioners were present, and evinced as deep an 
interest in the information communicated as any of 
the other audiences whom we had occasion to address. 
In the evening, at Rhives, fixed our plans for visiting 
Assynt and Stoer,&c, and sent intimations accordingly 
to the ministers of these districts, bearing that we 
intended visiting them next week. 

" Wednesday, 25. — After parting with our good 
friends at Rhives, who entertained us most kindly, 
and cheerfully accommodated crowds of people from the 



304 JOURNAL. 

neighbourhood, who came there to attend family 
worship every evening, we proceeded to Dornoch, 
where we had previously arranged with Mr. Kennedy 
to preach. Arrived to breakfast. Preached in the 
open air to upwards of two thousand, and after ad- 
dressing them in Gaelic at considerable length, preached 
in English in church to a respectable audience, and 
addressed them also on the object of our mission. 

"Thursday, 26. — Proceeded on our return to Kin- 
cardine, where a large congregation were assembled 
for sermon. Had here also another opportunity of 
addressing the Creich people, the greater part of 
whom were present. This was deemed necessary and 
seasonable on account of reports having reached us 
that evil-designed individuals had been attempting 
to pervert the minds of the people, and the many 
well-disposed amongst them expressed themselves 
well pleased that these misrepresentations were met 
and obviated. 



" TEXTS PREACHED FROM — JANUARY 1843. 



Creicli 


... Gaelic ... 


... John xv. 16. 




... English ... 


13 


Lairg 


. ... Gaelic ... 


... Ps. lxxx. 14. 




... English ... 


... Prov. xxiii. 26. 


Rogart 


... Gaelic ... 


... Matt. xxii. 21. 


Helmsdale 


. ... Gaelic ... 


... Ps. xcix. 1. 




. ... English ... 


... Ps. cxix. 105. 


Clyne 


. ... Gaelic ... 


... John xvi. 10. 


„ (Sabbath) 


. ... English ... 


... John iii. 3. 


„ (Monday) 


. ... English ... 


... Gal. vi. 15. 


Dornoch 


. ... Gaelic ... 


... Rom. viii. 31. 




... English ... 


... Matt. xvi. 16, 17 


Kincardine 


. ... Gaelic ... 


... Isa. lv. 3. 



TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. 



305 



TEXTS ON SECOND JOURNEY. 



Assynt Church 

Lochinver (Saturday) 
(Sabbath) ... 



Gaelic 
Gaelic 
Gaelic 
■English 
Gaelic 
English 



Ps. ii. 12. 
Dan. iii. 17, 18. 
John xii. 21. 




Isa. lv. 6. 
Ps. ex. 3. 



Ps. cxvi. 10." 



" Journal of a trip to Assynt on the business of 
the Convocation, by the Rev. Dr. Macdonald and 
Rev. H. Allan :— 

" Tuesday, 31st Jan. — Rev. Dr. Macdonald arrived 
from Kiltearn manse at Kincardine about twelve 
noon, and preached in the tent in the churchyard of 
Kincardine to about two thousand people, and had a 
fresh opportunity of addressing the Creich people, 
who were present in great numbers, on the object of 
our mission. Prevented from proceeding to Assynt 
that evening as intended, owing to the very boisterous 
state of the weather. After going a short distance, 
were obliged to put back. 

" Wednesday, 1st Feb. — Left Kincardine manse at 
half-past seven. Breakfasted at Inveran, Captain 
Clarke's, and proceeded by Oikel Bridge to Assynt 
manse, where we arrived about five o'clock, being a 
distance from Kincardine manse of forty miles. 
Encountered almost the whole way severe storms of 
wind, rain, and sleet. 

" Thursday, 2d Feb. — A dreadful day with drift 

and snow. Preached in the church of Assynt in the 

forenoon to a full house, notwithstanding the state 
(103) 20 



306 



JOURNAL. 



of the day; and, after addressing the audience on the 
position of the Church, felt happy at seeing the 
eagerness with -which the people came forward to 
sign their adherence, for in less than an hour one 
hundred and nineteen names were put down. In- 
tended that afternoon to start for Lochinver, with 
the expectation of meeting on the following day with 
the people of Stoer, but were unable to proceed on 
account of the snow and drift, and were contented to 
remain for the night in our good quarters. 

" Friday, Sd Feb. — Though prepared to leave 
Assynt manse at an earlier hour, were prevented from 
doing so, from the stormy state of the day, till eight 
o'clock, when we set out amidst deep snow and drift, 
which not only retarded our journey, but rendered 
it rather hazardous, so that we did not arrive at 
Lochinver till three p.m., far too late to proceed to 
Stoer, even had the unabated storm permitted us. 
Thus, it took us seven hours to travel fourteen miles. 
Indeed, we never encountered such weather — wind 
and drift beating constantly in our face, so that we 
were obliged to employ a guide on horseback the 
whole of the w T ay, to point out the road before us. 
Not being able to get to Stoer as proposed, sent an 
express to Mr. Davidson to inform his people of our 
meeting next day at Lochinver, where they could 
have an opportunity of attending, the distance being 
about six miles. On arriving at Lochinver, we took 
up our quarters under the hospitable roof of Mr. D. 



TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. 



307 



Macdonald, where we were most kindly welcomed 
and entertained by his amiable lady in his absence, 
he being in England at the time. 

" Saturday, 4ith Feb. — Preached to a large audience 
in the Lochinver meeting-house, and addressed them 
afterwards on the subject of the Church question, 
after which the signatures proceeded rapidly ; Mrs. 
Mackenzie, Letterewe, and her daughters, Mrs. Mac- 
donald and Miss Mackenzie, having been the first to 
sign their names. Numbers attended from Stoer who 
were directed to sign their names in their own parish. 

"Sabbath, 5. — Preached in Gaelic and English, 
when from the crowded state of the house, great 
numbers w 7 ere obliged to sit outside, but suffered no 
inconvenience owing to the providentially mild state 
of the day. In the evening, a houseful attended for 
family worship and lecture — Mrs. Macdonald having 
kindly and readily accommodated them. 

" Monday, 6th Feb. — Left our good quarters at 
half-past eight, and proceeded, through deep snow, 
to the manse of Assynt, on our way homewards. We 
arrived there about eleven o'clock, where we rested 
for two hours, and in the meantime baptized a young 
stranger whom Mrs. Gordon had introduced into the 
world during our stay at Lochinver. Starting from 
the Manse of Assynt at ten o'clock, arrived at 
Oikel Bridge about seven o'clock, having been ac- 
companied for several miles before by Messrs Mathe- 
son and M'Kintosh on their return from Tongue. 



308 



JOURNAL. 



After stopping at Oikel Inn for upwards of an hour, 
during which we took some refreshment and addressed 
an assemblage of the neighbours on a portion of 
Scripture, we proceeded to the manse of Kosehall, 
where we arrived by ten o'clock. Thus we performed 
a journey of forty miles, by the kindness of provi- 
dence, through deep snow and wreaths by the way, 
which, but for the kindness of men who volunteered 
their services to clear the paths, would have been 
insurmountable ; and so disinterested were these 
persons, that when offered remuneration they positively 
declined, observing that their acceptance would be a 
reproach to the country considering the services in 
which we were engaged. 

" Tuesday, 7th Feb. — Preached in Kosehall church, 
Gaelic and English, and addressed the large audience 
in reference to the position of the Church. After 
which the people proceeded immediately to sign the 
adherence. In the evening, reached the manse of 
Kincardine, in health and safety, for which we have 
much cause to praise the goodness of the Lord, having 
never in our lifetime remembered encountering such 
tremendous storms. At the same time felt happy at 
having been able to accomplish the object of our 
mission, and, we trust, with success." 

Among the people of the North were a few who, 
to zeal for the honour of Christ, united a clear appre- 
hension of how it was involved in the conflict between 
the two parties in the Church, and who were pre- 



THE DISRUPTION. 



309 



pared to defend the position they assumed against 
all gainsayers. There were many who knew just 
as much of the merits of the question, as to be per- 
suaded that the evangelical party were right, and to 
be prepared to stand with heart and hand upon 
their side. Besides these, there were others who 
merely knew that those whom they were accustomed 
to regard as true ministers of Christ and true men 
of God, were on one side, and that the mere hirelings 
who always lived below the suspicion of caring for 
the honour or for the flock of Christ, were on the 
other. It was not unusual to charge all the people 
of the North with the lack of any higher intelligence 
than was possessed by these last. " They blindly 
followed designing leaders " was some men's way of 
speaking of the Highland exodus. " The High- 
landers, 1 ' Dr. Macdonald once said, "are charged with 
having acted ignorantly at the time of the Disruption. 
They blindly followed, it is said, a few ministers and 
laymen who were popular among them. Even if it 
were so, it is to them no reproach. ' The fairest 
among women ' herself was once at a loss what to 
do, and whom to follow ; and the direction given to 
her by her beloved was to 'go forth by the footsteps 
of the flock/ and to 'feed her kids beside the 
shepherds' tents.' " 

He had no hesitation as to his own path of duty. 
He was not the man to waver when the crown rights 
of Jesus were assailed. After the Disruption he 



310 



THE SITE COMMITTEE. 



cheerfully forsook the old manse, and retired to a 
small cottage in its vicinity. He flitted again to a 
larger but not more comfortable house, and a third 
time to the Free Church Manse, where he spent 
the home share of the last three years of his 
life. During the erection of a new church, he 
preached in " the burn," long celebrated as the place 
of the great communion gatherings. It was there 
he preached on the first Sabbath after his return 
from the Disruption Assembly. His Gaelic text on 
that day was Gal. v. 1, from which he preached a 
most stimulating and cheering; sermon. 

After the attention of parliament was directed to 
the refusal to Free Church congregations of sites, on 
which to erect places of worship, and when the Site 
Committee was taking evidence, an attempt was 
made to excite prejudice against the Free Church by 
citing all the strong sayings of her leading ministers, 
as evidence of their intolerance and bigotry. Sir 
James Graham had employed a host of purveyors all 
over the countiy, to gather all the scandal against 
the Free Church which they could find, that the 
Baronet of Netherby might have a lapful of garbage 
with which to pelt the Free Church leaders when 
they appeared as witnesses before him. One of Dr. 
Macdonald's sayings was reported to the champion 
of the Establisment, and was regarded as a choice' 
specimen of the extravagant bigotry of the Free 
Church : " The Church of Scotland, as now consti- 



THE INVEENESS ASSEMBLY. 



311 



tuted," Dr. Macdonald said, " is a Christ -delving, 
God-dishonouring, and soul-destroying church." That 
he made such a declaration cannot be denied. He 
has been heard to repeat it publicly after it had been 
denounced by Sir James. The language was strong, 
but in the sense in which he used it, quite capable 
of being defended. He referred to the altered 
constitution of the church, and to the abstraction em- 
bodied in that constitution, and not to the member- 
ship and office-bearers of the church. That Christ was 
denied, his very position in the Free Church declared, 
though his tongue should never speak it. If the 
King of Zion is denied, he who set him on his 
throne must be dishonoured. Thus too is the Holy 
Spirit provoked to withdraw his presence, and when 
he departeth, souls must suffer. It seemed to him 
impossible that those who would not practically 
acknowledge Christ as King of Zion, could preach 
the whole truth regarding him; and from a mutilated 
gospel he expected no good to souls. It was on 
these grounds he rested the statement which so 
stirred the blood of Graham, and roused the ire of 
many a Herodian besides. 

When, in August 1844, a meeting of the General 
Assembly of the Free Church was held in Inverness, 
Dr. Macdonald was appointed joint moderator along 
with Dr. Macfarlane of Greenock. It was thought 
that as they met in the Highlands, the minister 
whom the Highlanders most delighted to honour, 



312 



THE MODEEATOE'S SERMON. 



should be placed in the Moderators chair; and, as so 
large a proportion of the audience understood Gaelic 
better than English, it was deemed desirable that 
Dr. Macdonald should explain to them, in their 
native tongue, the proceedings of the Assembly each 
day. At the opening of the Assembly he preached 
a Gaelic sermon. When he announced and read his 
text, there were few Gaelic-speaking hearers in the 
hall who could refrain from smiling. Many, who 
could not understand a word of Gaelic, remained 
during the Gaelic service. These, observing the 
excitement caused by the reading of the Gaelic text, 
were eager to find out the passage in their English 
Bibles, and were certainly not less excited than the 
Celts, when they were directed to the words, " And 
these, who have turned the world upside down, are 
come hither also." Referring to the occasion on 
which these words were first spoken, he stated the 
charge which they involved, examined the spirit in 
which that charge was preferred, and exposed the 
falseness of the grounds on which it was based. He 
then referred to the similar charge brought against 
the Free Church ; traced it to the same spirit as that 
of the enemies of the apostles; vindicated the Free 
Church; and flung back the charge of being dis- 
orderly on those who would dethrone the King of 
Zion, and enslave his blood-bought people. The text 
had actually been applied to the meeting of the 
Free Assembly in the Highland capital, by the lead- 



A TAUNT SUGGESTS A TEXT. 



313 



ing representee of Moderatism there. Hearing of 
the intended meeting, he, in those honied accents in 
which he could so deftly utter his sneers against 
Evangelism and its supporters, but forgetting from 
whom he borrowed the taunt, and against whom 
it was first directed, said, " So these that have 
turned the world upside down, are coming hither 
also." This was told to Dr. Macdonald, and deter- 
mined him in his choice of a text, and amply- 
justified his mode of treating it. 




CHAPTER XIV. 




LAST DAYS — DEATH — CHARACTER. 

URING the last four years of his life, and 
till within a few weeks of his death, he 
continued his wonted work. There was 
no abridging of his labours, no decay of his mental 
vigour, and no waning of his fervour in preaching 
the gospel. His sermons were shorter, but this was 
owing to their greater conciseness; and if there was 
less energy of manner, there was an accession of 
unction in his preaching. He delivered at that time 
a sermon which he himself called his ' miniature dis- 
course.' After an introduction, he announced two 
heads, spoke on each of them, and applied the 
doctrine to three classes of hearers, all within ten 
minutes. A minister who heard that sermon, and 
who marked the time which the preacher occupied, 
declared, that in that short time he had delivered as 
much matter as would ordinarily be spread over an 
hour. 

The last entry in his journal is dated in 1848, 
and records his labours during his last preaching 
tour. It is headed, " Jaunt to Greenock." 



JOURNAL. 



315 



"Tuesday, Sept. 19. — Left home, and stopped 
that night in Mr. M'Kenzie's, at Kessock. 

" Wednesday, 20. — At 7 A.M. went aboard the 
steamer, and reached Mr. Davidson's new manse at 
Kilmalie at 5 P.M. 

"Thursday, 21. — Preached at the opening of Mr. 
Davidson's new church, forenoon, afternoon, and 
evening. 

"Friday, 22. — Preached at Fort-William in Gaelic 
and English, and after dinner stepped on board the 
steamer, and reached Oban that evening. 

"Saturday, 23. — Started this morning for 
Greenock, where I arrived at 5 P.M. 

" Sabbath, 24. — Preached in Gaelic from Eph. v. 
14. Afternoon, in English, 1 Cor. ii. 5. Evening 
in English, Isa. xlv. 24. 

" Monday, 2 5 . — Visits. 

"Tuesday, 26. — Visits. 

" Wednesday, 27. — Preached in Gaelic in the 
evening, Luke xix., Zaccheus. 

"Thursday, 28. — English in the evening, Ps. 
cxix. 105. 

" Friday, 29. — At Kilmun. 

"Saturday, 30. — Forenoon at Dunoon. 

"Sabbath, Oct 1. — Preached at Greenock, Gaelic, 
Rom. iv. 5. Afternoon, in English. Evening, in 
Seaman's Chapel, Prov. xxiii. 26. 

" Monday, 2. — Went to Campbeltown. 

"Tuesday, 3. — Preached in English, Ps. cxix. 105. 



316 



THE WORK OF HIS LAST PAYS. 



ei Wednesday, 4. — Preached in Gaelic, Rom. iv. 5. 

" Thursday, 5. — Sailed to Kilmory, Arran, and 
preached there in Gaelic, Eph. ii. 1 ; and in English, 
Isa. xlv. 24. 

" Friday, 6. — Came by steamer to Ardrossan, 
thence by train to Paisley, and from Paisley to 
Greenock, where I preached at 7 P.M., in English, 
Isa, lv. 3. 

" Sabbath, 8. — At Greenock, Gaelic, Ezek. xxxvi. 
26; English, Ezek. xxxvii. 9. 

" Monday, 9. — Preached Gaelic in the evening. 

"Tuesday, 10. — Preached at Dunoon. 

" Wednesday, 11. — Preached at Kilmun, Gaelic 
and English. 

" Thursday, 1 2. — Greenock. Evening in English, 
Rom. iii. 19-31. 

« Friday, 1 3.— Meeting of the congregation. 

"Saturday, 14. — Visited some sick people. 

"Sabbath, 15. — Gaelic, Matt. ix. 11 ; English, 
2 Cor. v. 18. Evening at Port-Glasgow, Gal. ii. 
16." 

On his return from the south he resumed his 
wonted work at home, and preached quite as often 
as usual to neighbouring congregations. The short- 
ness of time, the glory of heaven, and the Father's 
love, were the themes on which he chiefly dwelt in 
his last sermons. The prayer of the penitent thief 
was one of his last texts. During the last weeks of 
his active labour, he preached repeatedly from the 



HIS LAST ILLNESS. 



317 



words, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
with thy might ; for there is no work, nor device, 
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither 
thou goest.' J In one of his last sermons he declared, 
that looking back on his preaching, there was 
nothing which he regretted more than how little he 
had said regarding the love of God the Father. He 
preached his last sermon in the Free Church of 
Kiltearn. His text was Eccles. ix. 10. This, of all 
others, was the message by which such a ministry 
as his could be most fitly closed. 

His foot w T as blistered by an uneasy boot. Not 
regarding the sore as serious he continued his usual 
work, till at last his foot became so inflamed that 
he could no longer leave his room. Still he felt no 
anxiety about the wound ; but it continued to 
increase in painfulness, and at last medical advice 
was sought. All that skill and kindness could 
suggest was done towards arresting the progress of 
disease in the foot a but in vain. Mortification set 
in. A medical consultation was held. Six medical 
gentlemen were present, who had to decide in rather 
peculiar circumstances. The patient w r as one whose 
fame was in all the churches, and for the issue of 
whose illness thousands waited with intense anxiety, 
and around the house, in which they met, were 
gathered scores of stalwart men, each one with a 
cudgel in his hand, threatening to prevent by 
violence a surgeon's knife from touching their 



318 



DEATH-BED SAYINGS. 



revered pastor s limb. Uninfluenced by the threats 
of the excited crowd, the doctors decided that the 
amputation of the limb ought not to be attempted, 
further than the removal of the part which mortifica- 
tion had destroyed. But the virus passed into his 
system ; and he became delirious, and occasionally 
unconscious. At last he lay, for a few hours, merely 
breathing, till he fell asleep in Jesus on the evening 
of April 18th, 1849. 

His behaviour and conversation during his last 
illness were just what those who knew him best 
would have anticipated. He expressed no anxiety, 
uttered no complaint, and indicated no choice as to 
the issue of his sickness. " I have no right to ask 
what He is to do with me," he said, " I leave myself 
in the Lord's hands." With more than his wonted 
warmth he welcomed every Christian friend who 
came to see him. Once he expressed his surprise 
that any friend of Christ would visit one so unworthy 
as he was. To a minister who visited him during 
his last illness he said, " There are three things which 
the Lord hath done for me ; and may you have 
cause to praise Him for dealing so with you. He 
did not expose my heart sins to the world ; He did 
not punish my secret sins in my public work; nor 
did He alienate from me the affections of His people 
during all my ministry." 

During the earlier days of his last illness he was 
able to sit up in bed, and to conduct family worship 



HIS LAST VISITS. 



319 



as usual. But as his strength declined, another read, 
and he offered prayer. Even this at last he was 
unable to attempt. But in his hours of delirium, he 
would audibly pray and preach, as if a congregation 
were before him. Even then his wonted precision 
of thought and expression did not fail him. A little 
congregation outside the door of his room listened to 
prayers and sermons such as they had heard before only 
from himself. But his mind soon ceased to give in- 
dications of activity. There was usually silence there- 
after in the room in which he lay, broken only by- 
stertorous breathing. Even this at last was hushed 
under the wing of death, as his spirit went to its 
mansion above, leaving the body to sleep its long 
quiet sleep, till the morning cometh, on which they 
shall meet again, to spend thereafter an eternal day 
together in the Father's house. 

The following interesting account of his last days 
was kindly drawn up, at the writers request, by the 
Rev. A. Mackenzie, Edinburgh: — 

"My object is to furnish you with a few 7 memor- 
anda of the two last interviews I had with him, the 
one a few months, and the other a few hours, before 
his death. 

" About Christmas 1848, he paid a visit to his 
daughter here, who is married to our respected 
sheriff-substitute of Nairnshire. There was this 
difference betwixt that and previous visits — that 
those were in connection with the supplies he gave 



320 



VISIT TO NAIRN. 



at the various communions in the district — while 
this was expressly a visit to his friends. Some of 
us had remarked on this at the time, as it was so 
unusual. He came, as if to bid us his farewell; and 
I believe that after leaving Nairn, on his way home, 
he remained a day in Inverness, which he spent in 
going the round of all his friends there. 

" During the few days he spent here, he preached 
both at Nairn and Aulde?»rn; or, as he used to call 
it, he gave us a word; and that word, particularly 
in the latter place, I know, many have not and 
cannot forget. His text was Eccles. ix. 10, 'What- 
soever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; 
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor 
wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest/ After a 
powerful and practical exposition of his subject, he 
concluded by pressing on Christ's people the doctrine 
of the text, and enforced it by the following touching 
anecdote of the late worthy Mr. Macphail of Resolis. 
That eminent minister, when on his deathbed, was 
one night peculiarly restless. His friends, inquiring 
the cause, asked him, was he in bodily pain? or, was 
any r cloud coming in between him and the Saviour 
in whom he trusted? Were his evidences of a saving 
interest in Christ darkened? or, what was the reason 
of his tossings to and fro upon his bed ? The 
memorable answer he gave was — ' that he felt as 
much assured of being for ever with his Saviour, as 
lie was of lying on his bed; but I know not/ says 



HIS LAST SABBATH. 



321 



he, ■ how I can look Him in the face, when I think 
how little I have done for Him.' 

" This visit was to us a very happy one. Our 
much loved friend was singularly cheerful, and 
mirthfully lived over again some of his early years 
in the company of friends who had been his associ- 
ates at college; but who, like him, were soon after 
taken away. 

u Little did we think, as we looked on that 
powerful frame, that it was so soon to be smitten down. 
About two or three weeks after this visit, symptoms 
of that disease which terminated fatally began to 
appear in his foot. Hoping that rest and the bless- 
ing of God on the means employed would soon 
restore him to his usual vigour, his friends, in 
different parts of the country, agreed to supply his 
pulpit for some months. I felt it to be my pleasure, 
as well as duty, to give a Sabbath at Ferintosh. A 
long arrear of debt lay against me ; as he was, -since 
the period of my settlement in Nairn, my chief 
assistant both at our summer and winter commun- 
ions; and I was only too thankful to pay so small 
an instalment of it. My Sabbath happened to be, I 
think, the third Sabbath of April, 1849. I arrived 
at the manse about six o'clock on Saturday evening. 
He was rather anxious about my appearance; and, 
the more so, as he expected some information from 
me, about his name grandson at Nairn, who had been 
seriously unwell. I was able to tell him, after the 

(103) 21 



322 



DEATH APPPOACHIXG. 



usual salutations, that I bad left him better, which 
cheered him much. That child died on the same day 
with his grandpapa. I was astonished to find him so 
contented and happy, knowing the agony he for 
months had endured; and how unusual a matter it 
was for him to be confined for days, much less for 
months. After a short conversation in which all 
his strong interest in old friends was displayed we 
bade each other wod-bye for the night. 

"Next morning, being the Sabbath, and having 
so much work before me, I was only in his room for 
a few minutes, but observed a marked change to the 
worse from the previous evening. He was sinking 
into that comatose state which, at times, precedes 
dissolution. Still, no immediate danger was appre- 
hended, as the different members of the family were 
able to attend the house of God at one or other of 
the diets of worship. Shortly after dinner, however, 
Miss Macdonald came into the dining-room, where 
Sirs. Macdonald and I were sitting, and in tears 
told us that her papa was so much worse. An 
express being sent off* for the doctor, we all went 
upstairs at once to his bed-room, when the sad and 
rapid change was only too visible. He had fallen 
into that sleepy state from which he could not be 
roused, and his breathing was very loud. Having 
engaged in prayer at the request of Mrs. Macdonald, 
I took my seat for nearly two hours beside his 
couch. But, though I had his hand in mine and 



THE WftECK. 



323 



frequently stroked his brow, his stupor still continued. 
In this state he remained over the night. As I sat 
by that bed I felt that I would not wish to see my 
beloved father and friend long in that state. He 
looked to me, as he lay there, with his massive 
heaving chest, like the hull of some mighty war-ship, 
that fought triumphantly in many a battle and out- 
rode victoriously many a storm, and that now lay 
stranded on some beach, with all her masts and 
rigging gone. I would prefer that the violence of 
the storm would shatter that hull to fragments, than 
that it should remain as it is — so contrary to its 
former self. What I now witnessed was so unlike all 
that I had ever seen of the Doctor, and that I had 
associated with his clear and active intellect and 
powerful frame, that I felt, that if it were not the 
Lord's will that he should recover, I would not 
desire to be looking long upon his wreck. 

" His medical attendant, who lived at a distance, 
arrived about eleven o'clock, and remained till next 
morning, doing all that skill and kindness dbuld 
accomplish, but with little effect. As I knew how 
anxious the friends at Nairn would be to know the 
truth about their father's state, I made particular 
inquiry in the morning at the doctor, ere lie left, as 
to what he now thought of his patient's case ? His 
answer was, that ' if he did not rally in a short time, 
he could not stand it long.' On my way downstairs 
to breakfast I went into his room to inquire bow he 



324 



HIS LAST HOURS. 



was, and found him still in a dozing state. The 
nurse that attended him wished to rouse him up, 
that he might recognise me. I begged her not to 
do so, as it might trouble him. She, however, in- 
sisted on it, as the lethargy of the previous evening- 
was now not so heavy upon him. Having done so, 
she asked him, ■ if he knew who that was beside 
him?' I will never forget the strange look he gave 
her, as if that look would say to her — how could 
you think I did not know him ; and putting out his 
hand, he gave it to me and wished me good morning, 
adding with his usual kindness, ( I hope you have 
breakfasted, sir ? ' to which I replied, ( Not yet, but 
that I was just going to it,' with which he seemed 
satisfied. 

"Becoming more conscious after breakfast — though 
it was that consciousness which often precedes disso- 
lution, that bright but temporary flickering of the 
taper ere it goes out for ever — he expressed a wish 
to see me ere I left for home. Shortly after eleven 
o'clock I went to his room; and whether he wished 
to be alone with me or not, I cannot say, but all 
left it. On coming beside him, he thanked me cor- 
dially for the help I had given him in his affliction. 
I replied, 1 It was well my part to do so, for that the 
debt was all on my side/ He then spoke to me of 
his friends in Nairn, and the deep interest he had, 
not only in his relations there, but in some who were 
the companions of his youth ; and to each of them 



HIS LAST WORDS. 



325 



he sent by me his warmest Christian regards. On 
thanking me again for this my visit, I said that I 
hoped he wonld not speak so, for I was only doing 
what was both my pleasure and my duty to do ; 
adding, that many a weary step did he take in 
coming to Nairn to tell us of Christ and his work, 
whatever benefit we derived from his messages. He 
replied, ' It was well my part to do so, for I ever 
found Him a good and kind Master/' 'You can then 
say of Him/ I added, 6 what Polycarp did, when his 
persecutors would have him deny Christ by throwing 
some grains of incense on the altar to Ca3sar — 
" Eighty and seven years have I served Him, and 
He never did me any wrong." I proceeded thus 
far, w T hen so clear at the time was his own mind 
that he concluded the sentence — ' " Would you have 
me then deny my Lord and Master?'" 

" Anxious to know the views he entertained of 
his state, I asked him ' if he thought there was any 
hope of seeing him again in Nairn, as he knew, if it 
were the Lord's will, the great gratification it would 
afford us.' His answer was, that ' his hope was now 
becoming very feeble.' After some further conversa- 
tion, he took both my hands in his, and bidding me 
an affectionate farewell, using the words of the dying 
patriarch to his relatives, 4 God bless the lad,' we 
parted ; he to go to his reward, and I to go to my 
work. I believe he spoke but little after this. In 
about five hours thereafter, he breathed his last. 



326 



ANECDOTE. 



And thus God took to himself his servant, on whom 
be bestowed a singular combination of endowments; 
so that whether we view him in the massive build 
of his body, so significant of strength, or in the 
clearness and activity and power of his intellect, or 
in the richness and vigour of his grace, he was pecu- 
liarly fitted for doing that work to which his life 
was consecrated, and which well entitled him to the 
appellation of ( the Apostle of the North.' 

" That playful mirthfulness, in which he at times 
indulged, did not forsake him amidst all his suffer- 
ings. His sorrowing widow stated to me, that the 
week before his death she was sitting in an arm-chair 
beside the fire in his bed-room, and his eye observing 
her, he said with a smile, ' Wife, I will soon put you 
out of that seat.' To which she at once replied, ' I 
will have no objections, however soon.' 

" As my object in this letter is to furnish you 
with some notanda of our valued friend, I would 
not conclude without one fact which I had in regard 
to him from our much esteemed father, the Rev. 
Duncan Grant of Forres. 

" Many years ago, Mr. Grant went to spend a few 
weeks at StrathpefFer. In doing so, he purposed 
to be a Sabbath with his old friend the minister of 
Ferintosh. On arriving at the manse, he found him 
in bed. He was pressed very much to preach to the 
people who had assembled in the house of God for 
prayer; but declared, from the state of his health, 



RARE ILLNESSS— FUNERAL. 



he spent the most of the day with the patient in his 
bed-room. In the afternoon, I think, of the Sabbath, 
Dr. Macdonald said to his friend, £ Yoa have been 
asking me the matter with me; I will tell you now. 
For some time I thought that God was not reveal- 
ing himself to me in his majesty, as I believe I 
needed ; and I, in my ignorance, was often praying 
that he would do so. Last Sabbath, on commencing 
my first prayer in the church, I did so by pleading 
with the Lord that lie would thus reveal himself to 
me; and he was pleased to do so; but the effect was 
so overpowering to this weak frame of mine, that I 
could scarcely get on with my public duties that day; 
and here I am suffering in body from obtaining what 
I then asked;' — showing us how little of the glare 
and power of divine glory the mightiest of us can 
here endure/' 

His funeral was attended by an immense con- 
course of people, and his remains were laid beside 
those of Mr. Calder. Their bodies, having spent 
their strength on the same field of labour, now lie 
together in the same spot of earth; together they 
shall arise at the last trumpet's sound ; together 
ascend to their place on the right hand of the 
Judge; contiguous may be their mansions in 
the eternal home; and in one service shall they 
be employed for ever. A visitor of their graves 
in the old church -yard of Urquhart shall cer- 
tainly see nothing to indicate that the men of 



328 



DR. MACDONALD DESCRIBED. 



this generation are given to garnishing the tombs of 
the prophets. 

Dr. Macdonald's place in the visible Church is 
empty now, and his work on earth is done. But 
those who loved him would desire to think of him 
as they knew him while he was yet among them, 
and to receive their last impression of him, as he 
was, while his place on earth still knew him, and his 
great work was still in progress. 

Short in stature; his complexion dark; his iphy- 
sical frame compact, instinct with animation, and 
showing no trace of ailment or infirmity; his face, 
with features well defined and regular, showing no 
peculiarity that weakened the force of its impression 
as a whole ; a brow broad and high ; and eyes dark 
and quick of glance, kept expressive by an active 
intellect, and ever beaming with fresh love and cheer- 
fulness; — those who knew him cannot forget how he 
seemed and moved while he' was yet among them. 

His mental powers were admirably adapted to the 
work for which the Lord had destined him. His 
intellect had as much of a mathematical intention, 
as gave rare precision to his thinking, while his 
imagination was sufficiently active to preserve it 
from a bare and cold rigidity. Careful to examine 
any subject to which he directed his attention, and 
conceiving clearly &ny views presented to his mind, 
his memory easily retained his acquisitions of know- 
ledge. Eager to add to his stores of information, 



HIS CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 



329 



his reading was extensive; and if his devotion to 
theology and to his work as an evangelist allowed 
him not to prosecute his researches far into other 
fields of study, his general information was gathered 
out of all departments of thought, and could be era- 
ployed at pleasure for the instruction of others. 
His heart had greater width than depth. It could 
receive impressions from all quarters. But of in- 
tense feeling it was incapable, and never prone to 
exclusive attachments. He could for the time meet 
every phase of suffering and want with kindly sym- 
pathy; but he could not rivet his affections to any 
one object, except as grace inclined or as duty required 
him to do so. 

His Christian experience was such as furnished 
the fittest training for an evangelist's work. He 
had early learned to give to the work of Christ and 
to the work of the Spirit each its proper place, when 
dealing as a preacher with men, because he had first 
learned to do so when dealing as a suppliant with 
God. The great truths, according to which his 
personal Christianity was moulded, formed the great 
lessons of his preaching — justification, on the ground 
of Christ's righteousness, imputed by God and re- 
ceived by faith, as securing a title to life; sanctifi- 
cation by the Spirit, through the truth, as preparing 
for its enjoyment; and new obedience, as evidence 
of an interest in it. Preserved from marked vicis- 
situdes of feeling, he was ever ready for the work 



330 



AS THEOLOGIAN AND PREACHER. 



which was given him to do in the service of the 
gospel. 

As a theologian he was, in some respects, unsur- 
passed. There were divines who had read more 
extensively, and were possessed of more varied learn- 
ing. Many could quote works which he had never 
read, and a few could discuss topics which he had 
never studied. But there was no man in his day 
who had a clearer view of the system of revealed 
truth, and a more extensive acquaintance with the 
mind of God in his word; who could state with 
greater precision the doctrines of the gospel; indicate 
their mutual connections, and define their places in 
the system with more exactness ; and who could apply 
the truth more skilfully to the consciousness and 
the work of the Christian life. 

It was as a preacher he attained his eminence. 
There have been not a few who could defend the 
doctrines of the gospel against learned disputants 
with greater success. Many have equalled, and a 
few have surpassed him, in the power to affect the 
feelings of an audience. In skill of illustration he 
was inferior to some of his contemporaries, and there 
were others who were more skilful casuists. But all 
the elements which combine to constitute a true 
preacher of the gospel were found in him in rare 
harmony and in excellent measure. His expositions 
were always careful, luminous, and exact; his state- 
ments of doctrine were marvellously precise ; the 



CALVINISM AND EVANGELISM. 



331 



arrangement of his ideas was always logical and 
textual ; his facility of expression was singularly 
great; his illustrations, always apt, were often strik- 
ing; his practical counsels to Christians, suggested 
by his own experience, were always wise and season- 
able; and his appeals to sinners were most solemn 
and powerful. 

While never losing sight of Gods sovereignty in 
dispensing his grace, he never hesitated to proclaim 
his good will to all. He believed on the same 
authority the electiveness of God's covenant purposes, 
and the indiscriminateness of his gospel calls. No 
preacher was more careful not to fetter the sovereignty 
of God on the one hand, and on the other, not to 
limit the overtures of his grace. It is strange that 
those who believe the doctrine of election and who 
* preach it, and who also believe, and in their teaching 
insist on, the necessity of regeneration in order to 
faith, should be deemed incapable of honestly, heartily, 
and hopefully inviting sinners, in the Lord s name, 
to Christ. Surely it is the man, who has made his 
election sure, and who, in the light of that doctrine, 
sees his salvation secured by the immutable purpose 
of Jehovah, who feels himself, above all others, under 
obligation to declare the will of God, whatever it may 
be ; who, above all others, regards salvation as worth 
the offering and worth the having ; and whose heart, 
as it came into closer contact with the fountain of 
God's love, is fullest fraught with its bountifulness, 



332 



THE PREACHER'S HOPE. 



and readiest to overflow, if it may, in declarations of 
God's good will to all. He makes much more than 
others of God's will To its sovereign exercise he 
has traced up his salvation as to its spring; and he 
is more likely, just on that account, to take it, as it 
is revealed, as his only rule in dealing for God with 
men. He has been in the habit too of thinking of 
God's will in its most unaccountable volitions. He 
is therefore quite prepared to find mysteriousness 
investing it ; and its incomprehensibleness is to him 
but an evidence of its divinity. He cannot reconcile 
the good will declared to all, with the saving love 
confined to the elect ; but he takes the revealed will 
of God as it is given to him. He would have others, 
he would have all. to come in ; for the salvation he 
himself has found is both sure and free — sure as the 
covenant secures it, free as the gospel offers it. In 
Scripture light he sees the will of God, in its relation 
to the chosen, and in its bearing upon all. The one 
melts his heart, the other enlarges it. By the one 
love enters into the very depths of his soul and 
surcharges it ; and the other marks the channel, in 
which it may be discharged in fervent declarations 
of God's good will to all. 

He stands consciously between souls who are im- 
potent because dead, hostile because sinful, and in 
bondage because enslaved, and God, who alone hath 
" the excellency of the power," and who uses that 
power as he who will have mercy on whom he will 



" ANOTHER GOSPEL." 



333 



have mercy, and who hardeneth whom he will. Can 
he stand there but " in weakness and fear and much 
trembling V 3 But may lie not, in such a position, have 
hope of success ? Must he ignore the utter depravity of 
the sinner and the sovereignty of God in order that 
he may not despair of fruit from his work ? There 
are w 7 ho judge that he must, and there are preachers 
who act accordingly. They rest the result of their 
preaching entirely on the hearer's will, and they ply 
him with all their power of persuasiveness in order 
to bend him to an acquiescence in their views. 
They usually keep out of sight all except the free 
deliverance from wrath which is revealed and offered 
in the gospel. Of the ideal safety which they thus 
propose, the carnal mind, urged by the fear of death, 
has no objection to accept, when it is presented apart 
from the person and the cross of Christ and from the 
way of holiness. The results may prove that there 
is power in such preaching. Converts may indeed 
be multiplied indefinitely under it. In respect of 
mere temporary influence — mere seeming present 
success — it has an immense advantage. It affords 
effective help to the operation of the natural con- 
science, and at the same time meets the sinner's 
selfish desire for peace. It avoids what is offensive 
to the unrenewed mind, easily allays a nascent 
anxiety, and may therefore seem to accomplish great 
things. But of w T hat eternal avail are its results ? 
Dr. Macdonald's preaching was not such as this, 



334 



DILIGENCE AND HUMILITY. 



issuing only in the result of a mere ephemeral ex- 
citement. 

To Dr. Macdonald preaching was no toil. He was 
so devoted to it, and became so dependent for his 
happiness on his work as an evangelist, that the day 
of which he wearied most, was the day on which 
he did not preach. He shrunk from acknowledging 
on any occasion that he felt fatigued, in case it might 
be suspected that he was wearied of his work, because 
sometimes wearied in it. And yet it was he who 
said, " I never went to the pulpit without fear, and 
I never left it without shame." 

His humility was always evident to those who 
knew him intimately. He was impatient of flattery; 
a compliment always disconcerted him. And yet he 
formed a due estimate of his own gifts, position, and 
work. His lo\v opinion of himself did not arise 
from his undervaluing his attainments. He could 
bear to know them without being elated. He could 
without selfishness claim the position which the Lord 
had assigned to him. It was indispensable to his 
usefulness that he should know r , as he did, the work 
which was given him to do by the Lord, and what 
he had received to be laid out in his service. There 
was found in him the rare combination which made 
the great apostle of the Gentiles so peculiar — an 
assurance of being favoured above others by the 
Lord, and a willingness to take his place below them 
all in His presence. Paul knew that he was not 



IN SOCIETY AND AT HIS DESK. 



335 



behind the very chiefest of the apostles ; and yet 
he counted himself the less of the two least of all 
the saints, and of all sinners he called himself 
" chief/' 

In society no companion could be more agreeable. 
He was always radiant without ever making an 
effort to shine. The light of his cheerfulness was 
spontaneous — he was pleased and therefore he was 
pleasant. He could easily adapt himself to the ever 
varying circumstances in which he was placed ; and 
yet he always retained his own idiosyncrasy in 
character and manner. His power of adaptation 
arose from his amiability and unconsciousness, never 
from his assuming a character not properly his 
own. 

Those who were instructed and delighted by Dr. 
Macdonalds masterly discourses, cannot but regret 
that no carefully written specimen of his preaching 
can be found. His busy work as an evangelist left 
him no leisure for elaborate writing ; and any care 
bestowed by him on composition was expended in 
the construction of Gaelic poems. He had as much 
fondness for poetry as moved him to attempt to write 
it ; but though he had poetic taste he lacked poetic 
skill. Though he could admire genuine poetry he 
could not produce it ; but in deference to his poetic 
tendency, as a memorial of the work to which it 
prompted him, and to remind us of his present bliss, 
his memoir shall close with the only specimen we have 



33G 



DYING IN THE LORD. 



of English verses from his pen. The} 7 were suggested 
by Campbell's well-known stanza — 

" Few, few shall part where many meet, 
The snow shall be their winding sheet, 
And every turf beneath their feet, 
Shall mark the soldier's sepulchre." 

MORAL. 

" But happy he when thus laid low, 
Whether on sea, or earth, or snow, 
Who finds that all his scenes of woe 
Have disappeared rapidly ! 

Who, wafted on angelic wing, 
Enters the palace of his King, 
There to dwell, and e'er to sing 
The glory of his victory. 

To dwell with him ; removed afar 
From hateful strifes, and din of war ; 
Where sin and sorrow never mar 
The streams of his felicity. 

Where many ransomed sons shall meet 
To part no more — the scene's complete. 
Hence, then, far hence, thuu winding sheet, 
Give place to Immortality. 

Let rising glory chase away 

The shades of night, and nightly sway, 

And usher in the blissful day 

That measures long eternity ! -; 




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